Will the new broom sweep clean?

Last post on the market for a while, from tommorow it's just going to be sit and watch with most of the money out of the market and safely back in the bank. Let us hope that the new Chief of the Securities Exchange Commission doesn't end up having to fight a bubble as his first task like the last one did.

If we can use the market's reaction to the former chief's resignation (Mrs Sugathadasa), a safe bet would be that the market would be up tomorrow. At the CSE, retailers buy on any news good or bad. For example when DPL declared bankrupty prices shot through the roof (and no it wasn't trading below NAV). This has become a news driven market.

But what's really intriguing is that no one really knows what the new chief will do. Brokers and gamblers are hoping that he would become their lapdog (that's right folks, brokers pressurizing the SEC doesn't raise eyebrows in Colombo). On the other hand investors and traders are hoping that Mr Karunaratne might turn out to be one of the rarest kind of Sri Lankans - the kind that posses a backbone.