Apr 30, Colombo: Sri Lanka stocks lost again today at the Colombo Bourse as investors shaken by the LTTE air raid on Sunday morning remained sidelined as holidays approached. The market has been sluggish for the last month as the ethnic conflict continued with no solution to be seen. Markets will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday for the Weak Holidays.

The main Colombo All Share Price Index fell 13.35 points or 0.47% to close at 2,811.29 while the highly capitalized Milanka Price Index lost 21.04 points or 0.54% to close at 3,869.40. The turnover closed low at 119.4 million rupees with foreign purchases of 50.1 million rupees and foreign sales of 50.6 million rupees while the trading volume closed at 2.45 million shares.

Conglomerate John Keells Holdings dominated the turnover today with 73 million rupees falling 0.34% to 146.50 rupees in a trade of 499,100 shares. The fixed-line operator Sri Lanka Telecom closed down by 1.30% at 38.00 rupees trading 138,100 shares while the market heavyweight Dialog Telekom remained flat at 27.00 rupees trading 57,600 shares.

Other major contributors to the turnover included Tokyo Cement - Non Voting (222,300), Distilleries (35,800), Kotagala Plantations (58,000), Ceylon Leather (48,300) and Ceylon Glass (332,400).

No sector posted gains today. Investment Trusts sector posted a loss of 2.28% while Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals lost 2.26%. Land and Property, Healthcare, Footwear and Textiles, Motors, Banks, Finance and Insurance and Manufacturing sectors posted losses above a percent.

Ceylon Tea Services gained 60.00 rupees or 33.33% to top the gainer’s list. The other top gainers included Ferntea (8.33%), Peoples Merchant Bank (6.45%), Seylan Bank (5.97%) and Lanka Cement (2.94%).

Commercial Bank - rights lost 4.00 rupees or 18.39% placing it at the top of the loser’s list. The other top losers included Hotel Developers (-9.75%), Stafford Hotel (-9.52%), Mullers (-9.09%) and Parquet (-8.06%).

Rupee fell sharply today against the dollar from the previous close according to the Central Bank figures buying at 109.47 rupees and selling at 110.89.