Bourse Makes Pyrrhic Gains On Low Turnover
Posted on the August 19th, 2012 under News by The Sunday Leader 
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The stock market made pyrrhic gains on a low Rs. 216.7 million turnover at the weekend.
The benchmark ASI gained by 18.41 points (0.38%) over the previous day’s close to finish Friday at 4,927.13 points, while the more sensitive MPI increased by 28.70 points (0.63%) to close the week at 4,550.02 points. The silver lining was a Rs. 39.9 million net foreign inflow (NFI), with the market, since the beginning of the year and upto Thursday, recording a Rs. 27 billion NFI. The bourse’s price to earnings ratio (PER) as at Friday was 13.33 times, a stock market source told this newspaper.
On the previous day Thursday, the market’s honeymoon of Tuesday and Wednesday seemingly ended, with the bourse returning a low Rs. 208.7 million turnover, complemented by the ASI falling by 30.94 points (0.63%) over that of the previous day Wednesday’s close, while the MPI fell by 58.83 points (1.28%).
The market returned a Rs. 26.4 million NFI, with a reported Rs. 26.97 billion NFI for the year to date (ie upto Wednesday).
Market’s PER as at Thursday was 13.28 times. Meanwhile in the previous two days, blue chip John Keells Holdings plc for two consecutive days was the girl on the beach, contributing heavily to market turnover, NFIs and also helped to push up market indices on both Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s trading, a source told this newspaper.
As a result, the bourse netted in a NFI of Rs. 586.40 million on Wednesday, on the back of a Rs. 144.47 million NFI the previous day Tuesday.
Meanwhile the ASI gained by 31.47 points (0.64%) over the previous day’s close, while the more sensitive MPI increased by 66.12 points (1.46%) on a Rs. one billion turnover. On Tuesday, the ASI gained by 61.74 points (1.27%) and the MPI by 141.41 points (3.23%) over the previous day Monday’s (August 13) close, on a modest Rs. 535.42 million turnover.
The only blot in these gains was manipulative trading on certain junk stocks, a way crooks showed their pleasure on the news that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Tilak Karunaratne has been forced to throw in the towel for not bending into manipulators’ demands that investigations against them be halted, which also boosted the indices, he said. The SEC comes under President Mahinda Rajapaksa by virtue of him also being the Finance Minister. However at the beginning of last week on Monday, the bourse recorded its seventh lowest turnover figure for the year to date, a sum of Rs. 163.6 million (see also the business pages of this publication’s last week edition).
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Bourse Makes Pyrrhic Gains On Low Turnover
