Market falls - profit taking continues

Activity levels remain moderate:

The market failed to sustain last Friday's strong rebound as retail investors continued to look for profit taking opportunities. The activity levels although remained moderate during the early part of the week gradually dried out as the market slid further into the red.

The ASPI (All Share Price Index) lost 52.1 points or 2.1 percent to close at 2399.9 points while the liquid MPI (Milanka Price Index) declined by 32.3 points or 1.2 percent to stand at 2695.1 points on Friday.

The blue-chip conglomerate JKH became the week's highest contributed stock, injecting Rs.209.9 million to the week's turnover. JKH, which traded between a price band of Rs.132.00 and Rs.138.00, closed 2.0 percent down from last week at 133.25 per share. Total volume of JKH shares traded amounted to 1.5 million.

Continuing to remain among the top contributors was the blue chip banking stock NDB that generated a turnover of Rs.140.9 million while trading 0.9 million shares during the week.

The price of NDB share witnessed rising steadily during the week, gaining 5.6 percent or Rs.8.50 WoW. The banking counter traded at a high of Rs.161.00 and a low of Rs.150.00 per share for the week.

Aitken Spence (SPEN) meanwhile, was placed third in terms of turnover for the week.

The high cap conglomerate added over Rs.115.3 million to the week's turnover, after trading 0.2 million shares in total. SPEN saw its share price sliding 1.5 percent Week on Week (WoW) to close at Rs.640.00 per share on Friday.

Contributing Rs.99.8 million to the week's turnover was the Ceylinco group company, The Finance (TFC), which attracted heavy investor interest particularly during the early part of the week.

TFC traded a total volume of 3.8 million shares gaining a notable 16.3 percent during the week to close at Rs.25.00 per share on Friday. The counter touched a high of Rs. 30.00 for the week and a low of Rs. 21.75.

Market turnover, which climbed up as prices rose sharply during past few weeks, gradually dried out as prices retreat. Thus the total weekly turnover this week showed a 41.2 percent decline amounting to Rs.2.0 billion while average daily turnover stood at Rs.402.5 million.

Foreign purchases were slightly heavier during the week resulting in a net foreign inflow of Rs.11.2 million as against a net foreign outflow of Rs.146.1 million posted last week. Foreign purchases for the week stood at Rs.543.9 million down by 4.4 percent while foreign sales amounted to Rs.532.7 million, showing a WoW decline of 25.5 percent. Foreign participation relative to total market activity improved this week to 26.8 percent compared to 18.8 percent recorded last week.

Highly traded stocks during the week were Seylan Merchant, Sierra Cables, Seylan Merchant (Non Voting) and The Finance.