The counter, among the most liquid shares traded on the CSE, gained Rs.2.25 to close at Rs.143.50 on a trading range of Rs. 143.50 to Rs.144.25 on nearly 0.4 million shares.

"Both indices were up by over 20 points most of the day but began sliding down during afternoon trading," Prashan Fernando of Acuity Stockbrokers said.

"Yesterday’s news of a presidential directive to state banks to bring down their lending rates did not impact on the market as it should have," he said. "Low interest credit should activate margin trading as well as encourage activity with borrowed funds."

Fernando said that there was a lot of merging trading when funds were available at 12% sometime ago saying that at present margin traders were paying from 17 to 19%.

Next to JKH, Seylan non-voting with nearly 1.2 million shares traded between Rs.17.25 and Rs.17.75 contributed the second highest turnover of Rs.20.9 million with the counter closing 25 cents up at Rs.17.50.

Hotel stocks were up yesterday though on think volumes with Asian Hotels gaining Rs.2 to close at Rs.77 on 34,100 shares, Aitken Spence Hotel Properties, up Rs.1.75 to Rs.228.75 on 500 shares, Royal Palms, up Rs.6 to Rs.63 on 100 shares, Galadari, up 25 cents to Rs.16 on 45,800 shares, Mahaweli Reach, up 25 cents to Rs.18.75 on 2,700 shares and Fortress, up 25 cents to Rs.13 on 30,700 shares.

Keells Hotels closed flat at Rs.19.75, Marawila Resorts was also flat at Rs.7 while Renuka City Hotel was down 50 cents to Rs.152.50 on 100 shares.