Colombo bourse looks for direction
Some AGMS feel the ‘heat’ with shareholder queries
The first quarter performance ended quietly, unlike earlier years when large scale portfolio adjustments and allied window dressings took effect. Last year it was the credit problem which caused discomfort during the quarter ending March 2011.
The only eruption during the first quarter 2012 was the Rs.15.6 billion turnover on March 16 when over 76 million shares were transacted, of which the major part was purchased by foreigners. It was also a very busy week for both the direc- tors and shareholders because of the heavy schedule of meetings held during the week. This is the hot season, and in some instances the heat was also felt inside some of the airconditioned offices where the AGMS were held, when some questions were fired by the shareholders to the directors. Without any major strategic deals or any aggressive purchases the market plodded on, the All Share Index was stuck again in the same groove at 5431. JKH was in fair demand but its share price moved up to Rs 205.30 on Wednesday. Ceylon Tobacco, which closed at Rs.515.10 on Friday, Nestle Lanka and Marawila Resorts were helpful in the turnover.
Around 27.9 million shares in Marawila Resorts were transacted on Thursday. From the leisure sector, Citrus Leisure and Kalpitiya Beach Resorts were in the active slot, along with Vidullanka, Environmental Resources Investments, Richard Peiris and Panasian Power. Commercial Bank, HNB and Sampath Bank will trade EX DIVIDEND from 2nd April. The trio distributed cash and Scrip dividends until Friday March 30 when their AGMS were held.
Access Engineering which recent- ly took control of Sathosa Motors and also entered the pharmaceuticals trade commenced trading on Tuesday when over a million shares were transacted between Rs.25 and Rs 29.30, closing for the day at Rs.26.30. The retail players avoided this issue and the few who subscribed jumped out of it on the first day itself. Many retail investors are still smarting over their purchases in Expolanka, Softlogic Holdings, People's Leasing and Textured Jersey now labelled by them as 'LAME DUCKS'. However there has been fair support for Textured Jersey and sporadic demand for Softlogic Hold- ings at current prices. Price bands have not been imposed on any security for several weeks.
Changes in directorates: Chilaw Finance Ltd - N. M. Gnanalankara - Director/ Chairman, D. S. Weerasuriya - Director/ Managing Director, S C. Gunasekara - Director, W.G. A. Fernando - Director have resigned with effect from December 31, 2011 while J.A.D.N. Jayasuriya was appointed Chairman on the same day; Seylan Bank - Eastman Narangoda resigned as Chairman on March 28 with no replacement being named as yet;
Pan Asia Bank - A.G. Weera- singhe will step down as Chairman tomorrow but continue as a Director. He will be replaced by Nimal Perera, currently Deputy Chairman. Eshana De Silva was appointed Deputy Chairman and Anthony Page as Senior Director; Bartleet Finance - S. Sirikananathan was appointed a Non-executive, Independent Director. Turnover for the week was Rs. 4.2 billion against Rs. 5.4 billion last week. However both indices were slightly better than last week, the ASI up by a meagre 8.76 or 0.1% to close at 5431.09, while the Milanka was 49.68 points or 1% better when closing at 4897.54.