Turnover on the Colombo bourse was close to a billion rupees yesterday thanks to three large crossings of the Commercial Bank amounting to Rs.3.2 million shares at a price of Rs.177 done price with Mr. Raj Rajaratnam’s Galleon Fund believed to be the seller.

There were also two other ComBank parcels of 200,000 and 100,000 shares done at the Rs. 177 price, brokers said.

The indices closed in opposite directions with the All Share edging up marginally by 4.04 points (0.14%) while the Milanka was down 13.60 points (0.4%). Sixty three decliners outpaced 49 advancers.

ComBank closed 25 cents up at Rs.176 on a trading range of Rs.176 to Rs.180 generating Rs.616.8 million of the day’s total turnover of Rs.958.1 million, up from Rs.589 million on Monday.

Other than ComBank, Chevron and non-voting shares of HNB contributed the major business volumes with Chevron gaining Rs.7.75 to close at Rs.207 on nearly 0.4 million shares done between Rs.200 and Rs.210 and HNB X gaining a rupee to close at Rs.91 on over 0.6 million shares traded between Rs.89 and Rs.91.50.

These two counters contributed Rs.75.6 million and Rs.57.6 million respectively to the turnover.

"The day’s trading volumes contributed to market momentum," Roshan Noah of Acuity Stockbrokers said. "This is certainly a positive trend."

Brokers said that there was local buying for much of the ComBanks transacted yesterday indicating institutional interest.

With most of the September quarter results in and the year end approaching, brokers were hopeful that the market would look up in the near term.

Other counters showing volume yesterday included over 0.4 million Coco Lanka, up Rs.1.25 to close at Rs.48 and 0.1 million Renuka Holdings, up Rs.14.75 to Rs.110.