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Both the All Share and Milanka indices were down – the All Share by 12.35 points (0.41%) and the Milanka by 4.04 points (0.12%) with decliners outpacing advancers by 68 to 35.
HNB was the top turnover generator for the day with nearly 1.9 million shares done, losing Rs.1.50 to close at Rs.168 on a trading range of Rs.168 to Rs.170 contributing Rs.311.2 million to business volume.
ComBank followed gaining a rupee to close at Rs.177 on nearly 1.6 million shares traded between Rs.176 and Rs.177.75 posting a turnover of Rs.276.5 million.
"Apart from HNB and Commercial Bank, Dockyard, HNB non-voting, Royal Ceramics and JKH contributed to turnover," Prashan Fernando of Acuity Stockbrokers said.
There were three large crossings of HNB at a price of Rs.168 accounting for 1.7 million of the shares done yesterday while ComBank saw a crossing of 1.5 million at a price of Rs.177, the same price at which the bulk of its shares were done the previous day.
Dockyard saw some parcels of between 10,000 to 37,000 traded along with many small lots in the hundreds.
Brokers said that interest in Royal Ceramics (RCL) was seen after some time with 0.5 million shares traded, gaining Rs.1.75 to close at Rs.59 on a trading range of Rs.57 to Rs.59.50. One parcel of 250,000 at Rs.59.50 and another of nearly 100,000 at Rs.57.50 were among the RCL trades.
HNB X also attracted interest gaining 25 cents to close at Rs.91 on nearly 0.4 million shares while JKH was up 50 cents to close at Rs.145 on over 0.1 million shares.
The Finance announced in a Stock Exchange filing that it had incurred a serious loss of capital and an extraordinary general meeting will be convened on December 11 to apprise shareholders of the position.
The company had lost over Rs.1.5 billion in the first half of this year ended September 30 with net assets of the company down to a negative Rs.50.2 million as at September 30.
The directors of the company, now managed by the Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka, said that a series of measures had been proposed to prevent/recoup the loss already incurred including reducing interest rates on fixed deposits on the entire base as at May 31 to between 10% to 12.5% per annum with effect from November 15.
The company also intends introducing an easy cash deposit refund facility which is expected to gradually reduce the deposit liability in three years.
The Finance group also hopes to reduce its exposure wherever possible by obtaining assets to the value of the loans granted, negotiating with banks to reduce the interest on loans taken to reduce finance cost and dispose of land stock of the company taking advantage of reduced bank lending rates and upward trends in the property market.
