Bourse gets a taste of Tess Agro

Tess Agro Plc yesterday dominated the Colombo bourse, accounting for the biggest turnover value and volume wise as 36% of the company’s stake got traded.

Slightly over 65 million shares of the company change hands via 3,569 trades for Rs. 312.5 million.

The share price peaked to a new high of Rs. 5.30 before closing at Rs. 5.20, up by 30% or Rs. 1.20. Yesterday’s closing surpassed the previous 52-week high of Rs. 4.30. Most pinned the heavy trading to speculation. Compared to the trade of 65 million shares yesterday, Tess only saw 25 million changing hands whole of last week. Given the sharp rise, Tess came under SEC price band effective from today.

Net asset value of Tess is only Rs. 1.67 as at 31 March 2011. In FY2011, the company’s turnover grew to Rs. 952 million from Rs. 771.7 million a year earlier. After tax profit rose to Rs. 20.3 million from Rs. 18.5 million in FY10.

The Oliver Fernando family via Tess Pvt Ltd. own a 43.3% stake in the company along with Tropic Frozen Foods Ltd.’s 3.3% stake.