Colombo
Stock Exchange web site draws worldwide hits
Daily Mirror - Wednesday October 22, 2003
The
interest in the Colombo Stock Market by investors has led to an
overwhelming hit rate on the Colombo Stock Exchange web site www.cse.lk.
Since the live information content was launched on August 12 2003,
there were 3.5 million hits for the first three weeks and for September
2003 this increased to 6.5 million hits.
The rise in the number of hits and people accessing the site prompted
the Colombo Stock Exchange to increase its capacity of web servers
on a priority basis.
The web server capacities were increased on October 20, 2003 and
the Colombo Stock Exchange is at present working with its web technology
providers Affno (Pvt) Ltd and the web hosting company Sri Lanka
Telecom (SLT) to further increase its web server capacities in order
to meet the future increased demand.
During September 2003 on an average the Colombo Stock Exchange web
site received 216,667 hits. The average visit length per person
is approx 47 minutes.
The scope and the range of the website is that approximately 44%
is Sri Lankan in origin while the balance of approximately 56% comes
from all over the world.
The most active international visitor country is the United States.
Visitors from the United States account for 31% of the total number
of visitors, followed by the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates
and Australia. The USA contingent is also responsible for the most
downloads from the website - approximately 64% of total downloads.
Approximately 20% of visitors to the section of the site where files
can be downloaded over the period of the analysis have chosen to
utilise the Colombo Stock Exchange brochure's Sinhala version. This
suggests that there exists a strong Sinhala literate customer base
for the services that the website offers.
The Colombo Stock Exchange is planning to introduce the daily share
price list on the web in Sinhala and Tamil as well. These downloads
are popular as active content is stored in the Colombo Stock Exchange
website comprising downloadable versions of the profile of listed
companies, the Sinhala language option of the Colombo Stock Exchange
brochure, the Colombo Stock Exchange fact book, trading and market
statistics, the Colombo Stock Exchange annual report 2002, and the
listing rules and other regulations of the Colombo Stock Exchange.
The Colombo Stock Exchange will commence publishing all the quarterly
reports of listed companies on the website no sooner they are released
to the market. This information will be freely accessible. In addition
to this the Colombo Stock Exchange will also introduce a data base
of trading statistics of all listed companies. This will provide
listed companies a convenient method to access their company trading
information. These upgrades will come into effect from October 2003.
The Colombo Stock Exchange - www.cse.lk - is a company limited by
guarantee and established under the Companies Act No. 17 of 1982.
The Colombo Stock Exchange took over the Stock Market in 1985 from
the Colombo Share Brokers Association. It currently has a membership
of 15 institutions, all of which are licensed to operate as stockbrokers.
Since it commenced operations the Colombo Stock Exchange has initiated
a number of measures to improve the market's infrastructure and
regulatory framework to facilitate an orderly and fair market.
To date, the exchange has 240 listed companies, representing 20
business sectors with a market capitalisation of over 335 billion
rupees (over US $ 3.4 billion), which correspond to approximately
12% of the country's GDP.
The Colombo Stock Exchange is also a member of the World Federation
of Exchanges (WFE) and a member of the South Asian Federation of
Exchanges (SAFE). It has recently also been highlighted by Fortune
Magazine in its September edition as the second best Emerging Markets
stock exchange in the world.
