By Hiran H. Senewiratne
Business confidence is likely to strengthen following Central Bank Governor Dr Nandalal Weerasinghe who told the media yesterday that Sri Lanka was not facing a hard default but a precautionary default, implying to inform in advance of the payment of funds until the restructuring of the debt of the IMF. In addition, JP Morgan, a leading investment bank in the United States, said that with the recent political changes, the current political crisis in Sri Lanka will defuse and bond values will increase. It would also create some momentum for the stock market, analysts said.
They point out that political stability will lead to bond values rising above current lows. The Bank anticipates that this will facilitate discussions with the International Monetary Fund as well as the appointment process for legal and financial advisers.
“We believe this stability should lead to both the IMF discussions and the appointment process for legal and financial advisers,” Reuters said, citing JPMorgan analysts.
“Political stability should pave the way for bonds to rise from near-historical levels,” the JPMorgan analysts added.
Amid these developments, trading activity on the stock market started on a positive note and then declined. The All-Share Price Index fell 243 points and S and P SL20 fell 94.9 points. The turnover amounted to Rs 1.5 billion minus a crossover. In the retail market, the top seven companies that primarily contributed to revenue were; Expolanka Holdings Rs 777 million (3.7 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 204 million (24.8 million shares traded), LOLC Finance Rs 130 million (13.9 million shares traded), LOLC Holdings Rs 70.7 million (127,000 shares traded), Softlogic Life Insurance Rs 56.8 million (914,000 shares traded), Royal Ceramic Rs 33 million (one million shares traded) and Lanka IOC Rs 30.3 million (752 000 shares traded). During the day, 69 million volumes of shares changed hands in 17,000 transactions.
It is said that after four sessions of net gains recorded in the CSE shortly after the appointment of Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, the indices fell slightly due to profit taking on heavy stocks across all sectors due to faulty speculation. on the market. However, activity surged to higher levels with revenue exceeding Rs. 3 billion for the first time in nine weeks, largely boosting blue chips, market analysts said. Yesterday, the Central Bank announced the buying rate of the US dollar at Rs 354.56 and the selling rate at Rs 364.53. The Rupee rate appreciated against the Dollar as some policy measures were taken to bridge the gap between the Central Bank rate and the empty market rate.
