Slight drop in CSE indices due to profit taking
Hotels and Construction sectors look up

by Zacki Jabbar

Profit taking resulted in a slight dip on the Colombo Stock Exchange yesterday but renewed interest in the hotels and construction sectors helped maintain healthy turnover levels.

The All Share Price Index (ASPI), dippped 1.3 points to 1116.6 points while the Milanka Price Index (MPI) was down 20.9 points to 2159.9 points.

Turnover though down was a strong Rs 405.9 million

Stockbroking sources said that the highlight of yesterday was trading in Royal Ceramics, Connaissance de Seylan and Asian Hotels .

They said that Ceybank Unit Trust and Eagle NDB Fund picked up a sizeable portion of the 1,946,800 Royal Ceramics including two big blocks of 480,000 and 300,000 and several 100,000 parcels.

Ceybank Unit Trusts and Eagle NDB Fund also picked up shares in Connaissance de Seylan and Lighthouse Hotel.

Lighthouse was up Rs 1 to close at Rs 25 on a share volume of 98,900, while Connaissance de Seylan was up 25 cents to close at Rs 23.50 on a share volume of 139,7000.

The sources said that foreigners were active in Asian Hotels with one foreign fund picking up a block of 170,000 shares and several other smaller blocks of the 1,012,600 shares .The sellers were mainly locals.

Asian Hotels which peaked at 19.75 closed at Rs 19.50 the same as on Thursday.

Foreigners also picked about Rs 3 million worth of Telecom shares.

A Unit Trust also purchased a five million block of Telecom shares at Rs 15.50.

The share was up 25 cents to close 15.75 on a volume of 9.802,200 shares.

Stock market analysts said that yesterday’s trading was theoretically flat with a slight dip towards the closing stages.

"We expect the market to stay at the present levels with the trend shifting towards the hotels and construction sector" the analysts noted.