CSE to open branch in Jaffna

by Shirajiv SIRIMANE

The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), has decided to open a branch office in Jaffna.

An official from the CSE said that this was in response to the demand of Jaffna businessmen and the public who want to invest in the share market.

The CSE is currently negotiating for a building and they would get it by the end of the month. "We are hoping to open this branch in early February, he said.

The Jaffna people's per capita income is high. "They are self-sufficient in every way and in addition they also get a lot of foreign remittances from their relatives and they want to re-invest in stocks," a stock broker said. The CSE, despite a war and global recession in the first half of 2009, completed its best year in history to become the second best performing stock market globally according to Bloomberg Newswire.

Chairman Nihal Fonseka said that overcoming the challenges experienced in 2007 and 2008, the performance of the CSE last year - the All Share Price Index (ASPI), having experienced some volatility during the first few months of 2009, reached historic levels during the post-war period.

The ASPI recorded a growth of 125.3 percent for the year 2009, the highest growth recorded by the index for any given year, surpassing the previous record of a growth of 118 percent for the year 1991.

The CSE also achieved the highest turnover for a given year by generating Rs. 142.5 billion for the year 2009. The previous record was Rs. 114.6 billion generated in 2005.

The number of transactions for a trading day also reached a milestone in 2009 when 15,290 were executed on June 18. 2009. The total number of transactions executed during 2009 - 1.27 million was also the highest number recorded in CSE history.