Stockmarket Review Margin calls rule at Colombo bourse
Only three days of trading was held this week including two days of a bash when the bourse wiped out 268 points from the ASI, which struggled to end just a mere 300 points above the 5000 mark. The turnover for the period was greatly assisted by the 8.5 million shares of Commercial Bank. Of late foreign buying has been on the rise probably due to the current levels. This week foreign investors purchased 10 million shares in Expolanka, but their favourite is the No 1 in terms of market capitalization, JKH.
However in line with the overall plummet in the market the next day, Expolanka declined to its lowest price of Rs.6.70, as was the case of the recent IPOS like Textured Jersey which dropped to Rs.7.70, Softlogic Holdings to Rs 13.80, and Free Lanka Capital to Rs.2.20. Companies which released very high growth figure like JKH, and NDB Bank were not spared by the weeks' devastation at the bourse. Commercial Bank which announced a final dividend of Rs.1.50, and a share scrip in the ratio of 1 for 56.33 for the voting shares and 1 for 47.22 for the Non-voting shares was slightly lower as trading ended for the week. The voting shares were at Rs.101. Some of the major declines were that of EB Creasy which was down to Rs 1000, and Lanka Ashok Leyland down to Rs 2201.
However moving against the depressed trend, Infrastructure Developers was up to Rs.127.90, PC Pharma to Rs.48.20 and Regnis rose to 332. The usual basket of active stocks was Renuka Agri, Panasian Power, Soft-
Some local brokerages complained that the share prices were very high and that foreign Fund Managers would be interested if the market comes down. Accordingly we should witness some activity from these funds, because the prices of some shares are at unbelievable levels. Margin calls may be a benefit in this case, although many distressing statements were made over the margin calls issue
logic Holdings and Ceylon Tobacco - all traded in substantial quantities. Some local brokerages complained that the share prices were very high and that foreign Fund Managers would be interested if the market comes down. Accordingly we should witness some activity from these funds, because the prices of some shares are at unbelievable levels. Margin calls may be a benefit in this case, although many distressing statements were made over the margin calls issue. There is a category of retailers who prefer some of the export based companies in view of the recent developments and the current low levels.
Access Engineering Ltd is venturing out with a 20 million Ordinary Voting share issue at Rs.25, for which the opening date is 3rd March 2012.They must be hoping for a replay of the transaction style of Asia Asset Finance! A few investors who were trapped into Acme Printing & Packaging when it was almost nearing the peak of Rs. 34.50 last week when a massive 27 million shares were transacted, are somewhat perplexed as to why a price band is imposed now when the stock is trading at around Rs. 20.50
Changes in directorates: Vidullanka PLC -Sattar Kassim was appointed a Director on 16th January.
The turnover for the three days was Rs.3 billion as against Rs. 4.9billion for the five days in the previous week. Both indices were lower with the All share Price Index losing 269.19 points or 5% to end at 5316.99, while the Milanka was also down 185.89 points or 4.60% to finish at 4627.14.