Sri Lanka's stock market ended flat on Friday, as strong interest from retail investors offset concerns over a lack of liquidity. The island nation's main share index edged down 0.01 percent or 0.89 of a point at 6,950.61, from its highest close since August 19. The bourse is Asia's best performer so far this year, with a return of 4.74 percent, followed by the Philippines' 4.56 percent.
Speculative trading in jeweller Blue Diamonds' voting and non-voting stock drove them up 27.3 percent and 19.4 percent in heavy trade. Analysts said retail investors had piled in after a big purchase from an institutional investor. Both shares collectively accounted for 21.6 percent of the day's turnover and 35.5 percent of the volume.
Analysts said many investors, however, were staying out of the market on liquidity concerns following interventions by the Securities and Exchange Commission restricting brokers' credit, even though those restrictions had been eased. The bourse saw a foreign inflow of 45.9 million rupees on Friday, but thus far in 2011, offshore investors have sold 10.50 billion rupees.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.