CSE outstation branches perform well

Harshini Perera

The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) branches situated outside Colombo has shown significant increases in performance. CSE Manager, Business Development, Tushara Jayaratne told Daily News Business that the Matara branch has shown an outstanding performance in contributing to the daily transaction of the stock market.

Prior to the setting up of the Matara branch in 1999, the daily turnover from the area averaged Rs. 0.5 million whereas after the setting up of the branch it went over Rs. 8.7 million per day.

The turnover of the Kandy branch was Rs. 1 million in 2003 and it has increased to Rs. 8.2 million per day. Kurunegala and Negombo branches set up in 2005 and 2007 respectively has performed brilliantly throughout the years.

The Kurunegala branch turnover picked up from Rs. 2 million to Rs. 5 million per day and turnover at the Negombo branch from Rs. 3 million to Rs. 5.2 million per day. The performance of these branches has been due to the education programs and seminars conducted by the CSE in those areas and many stockbrokers venturing into rural areas. A new branch will be set up in Jaffna before the end of this year, he said.

“For the last few years young people have shown interest in investing in the stock market many of whom were undergraduates, private and Government sector employees.

Schoolchildren are being taught about the stock market from grade seven and eight as a part of the curriculum while undergraduates can acquire knowledge on stock market in various study courses offered in universities.

At our recent seminars in the Tamil medium at the CSE there was a lot of young participants,” he said.