Price band on Huejay

The Colombo stock market held in the green terrain in most part of trading yesterday due to the seeming accumulation of illiquid and selected land and property counters such as Paragon Ceylon Plc, Printcare Plc and Huejay International Investment Plc, On'ally Holdings.

However early intra-day gains were erased at the end of the day to close trading marginally negative.

ASI slipped down marginally by 0.66 points (-0.01 percent) to close at 7,474.50 and more sensitive MPI showed a moderate decline of 7.64 (-0.11 percent) to close at 6,937.16.

The market turnover stood at Rs 1.9 billion.

Aitken Spence Company Plc (SPEN) emerged as the top contributor to the turnover for the second consecutive trading day with an amount of Rs 167.1 million. SPEN recorded one off-the-floor deal of 1 million shares at a price of Rs 165.50.

In addition Aitken Spence Hotels Plc (Rs 141.6 million) and Central Finance Company Plc (Rs 126.7 million) made notable contributions to the daily turnover.

In the mean time high level of trading activity was witnessed in counters such as National Lanka Finance Plc, Lake house Printers and Publishers Plc and the newly listed company Free Lanka Capital Holdings Plc.

In terms of SEC directives 10 percent price band was imposed on Huejay International Investment Plc with effect from April 21, 2011. Foreign participation remained weak at 5.6 percent of the total market activity.

At the end of the day foreign selling outweighed foreign purchases by Rs 44.0 million. Lanka Securities Research