The Island-August 17, 2012, 7:25 pm
The Colombo bourse closed the week yesterday with all three indices up though on a low turnover of Rs.216.8 million, up from the previous day’s Rs.208.7 million, with the All Share Price Index gaining 18.41 points (0.38%), the Milanka up 28.70 points (0.63%) and S&P up 13.20 points (0.48%) with 91 gainers outpacing 60 losers while 92 counters closed flat.
With the SEC Chairman Tilak Karunaratne’s resignation in, the market was uncertain of further developments in the regulatory field as the outgoing chairman had been probing a group of powerful investors suspected of malfeasance.
Karunaratne was quoted by the Vimasuma saying that some brokers and investors had become powerful enough to influence his resignation commenting "imagine how powerful they must be for them to influence me to resign."
He had said that his decision to continue to investigate fraudulent transactions had resulted pressure being created for his resignation.
Brokers said that the market was very quiet with Commercial Bank (both voting and non-voting), JKH and LOLC being the major generators of business.
Commercial Bank (non-voting) closed Rs.1.40 up at Rs.80 on nearly 0.7 million shares done between Rs.79 and Rs.80.50 generating the day’s top turnover of Rs.53 million. ComBank (voting) followed gaining Rs.1.60 to close at Rs.102.20 on 0.1 million shares done between Rs.100 and Rs.102.20 contributing Rs.12.7 million to turnover.
JKH gained 50 cents to close at Rs.195.50 on 57,566 shares done between Rs.193.10 and Rs.196.50 while LOLC closed 20 cents up at Rs.38.30 on over 0.2 million shares done between Rs.38.20 and Rs.40.
The most traded stocks yesterday were all gainers or closed flat with just one crossing of 125,000 Ascot done at Rs.205 in a deal worth Rs.25.6 million.