"It was a very dull day although we saw a lot of trading in Distilleries with nearly 0.6 million shares traded between Rs.92 and Rs.97 gaining Rs.2 to close at Rs.94 on the volume weighted average (VWA)," Prashan Fernando of Acuity Stockbrokers said.

Investors are awaiting the Supreme Court judgment on the Insurance Corporation privatization case which is expected to be delivered this week. Distilleries is the major owner of the corporation.

Fernando attributed yesterday’s lackluster performance partly to the closure of many offices due to traffic arrangements which saw a section of the Galle Road closed and other road blocks imposed due to the victory parade on Galle Face.

Other than Distilleries, Browns saw over 0.2 million shares done between Rs.24 and Rs.25 gaining 25 cents to close at Rs.24.50 on the VWA and over a million CIC done between Rs.48 and Rs.49.75 gaining Rs.1.75 to close at Rs.49.75.

Hotel Services and East West also attracted some volume as did some of the one-rupee shares like Reefcomber, Piramal Glass and Nawaloka.