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| Thursday, 21 October 2004 |
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by Sudarshana Perera The All Share Price Index (ASPI) of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) yesterday recorded its highest level ever reaching 1530.9 points. The ASPI which started the day at 1506 points moved up by 24 points at 1530.9 points. Stock Market Analyst of HNB Stockbrokers, Hasitha Premaratne said that the market was dominated by the travel and tourism sectors and the records tumbling yesterday was a sign that in spite of macro economic hiccups, the tourism and earnings the corporate sector are continuing to make significant progress. "JKH Stock prices also appreciated by Rs. 4 on the back of corporate earnings reported this week. Investors have strong confidence on future properties as the chance of getting back to war is remote", Premaratne said. "The Stock Market has remained sensitive towards the peace and political developments, but in more recent times, investors have shown extra confidence of achieving peace. This confidence has helped the indices to reach new heights, despite the slow down in the progress in the peace process and the macro economic developments. The retail participation has shown a significant improvement in recent times with the smaller counters attracting an investor appetite. Increased enthusiasm towards the smaller caps could be observed when looking at the considerable mismatch in the performance of the All Share Price Index (ASPI) and the more sensitive Milanka Index. While the ASPI appreciated 44.1% this year to date, the Milanka index increased by only 15.1% during the same period. Meanwhile, the Colombo Stock Exchange's (CSE) two branches (Matara and Kandy) have contributed over 19% of the total turnover during 2004. Hotel stocks have been in demand as investors envisage a strong tourist season ahead", he said. Stock Market Analyst from Bartleet Stock Brokers, Angelo Ranasinghe said that investor optimism in the travel and tourist sector has made the market bullish and institutional investors have taken a keen interest on fundamentally sound stocks. The ASPI of the CSE has recorded a gain of 468.8 points (44.1%) so far year 2004 becoming the best performing stock market in Asia and one of the best performing markets in the world. The ASPI has recorded a growth of 1127.3 points (279.3%) from October 2001 to date. Local investors were the main contributors throughout the period. |
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