Penny stocks rule

Colombo stocks continued the previous day’s winning streak and closed on positive note with high investor participation, mostly on penny stocks. ASI advanced by 47.42 index points (+0.68%) to close at 6,998.03 while sensitive MPI closed advanced by 29.79 points (0.47%) to close at 6,326.91.

Daily market turnover stood at Rs.4.4bn.

Blue Diamond Jewellery Non-voting was the top contributor to the daily turnover with an amount of Rs.905.6mn. The counter traded heavily during the day and emerged as the top gainer. A total of 173.6mn shares traded during the day which accounted for 1.13 times of the issued quantity.

 

Stock reached the high of Rs.6.30 and closed at Rs.6.10, up Rs.2.20 (+59.5%). Colonial motors made the second highest contribution of Rs.362.9mn to the market turnover followed by heavily traded Seylan Merchant Bank (Rs.317.4mn).

 

Meanwhile, E-Channelling, Amana Takaful Insurance and Seylan Merchant Bank non-voting were among the actively traded stocks.

 

Further, hotel sector counters witnessed active trading during mid-trading hours and most of the counters gained during the day.

 

Foreign participation accounted for 7.5% of the total market activity. At the end of the day foreign investors were net sellers with net foreign outflow of Rs.181.4mn.