Friday 28 November 2014

Whiff of Maithri win will see bourse go through roof Rs 176B shareholder wealth lost due to political turbulence

By Paneetha Ameresekere

Ceylon Finance Today: The bourse continued to tumble due to the turbulent political situation in the country, with the benchmark ASPI falling by 0.89% to 7,115.89 points and the more sensitive.


S&P SL 20 Index by 1.39% to 3,968.58 points on a Rs 1.32 billion turnover at yesterday's trading.

The bourse, since former UPFA Minister and SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena, with the backing of the market friendly opposition UNP, announced his presidential candidature on Friday, has seen the ASPI fall by 5.5% and the S&P by 5.3%, while shareholder wealth lost has been Rs 176 billion.

"If, however, the market feels that Sirisena will win the 8 January poll, the bourse will go through the roof," market sources told Ceylon FT.

Losers outnumbered gainers by a ratio of 36:184.

Nevertheless, even a sharper fall of the bourse was prevented yesterday due to spurious trades of just three high flying stocks which are also captured in the S&P, revealing the flippancy of the Colombo Stock Exchange.

Those were the bourse's 8th largest capitalized stock Bukit Darah and 21st and 22nd largest stocks Cargills and Asian Hotels, gaining in price by 1.28%, 0.07% and 1.49% to Rs 714, Rs 150.10 and Rs 68 a share on share volumes (SVs) of 146, 10 and 228, whilst contributing meagre turnover figures of Rs 101,561; Rs 1,501 and Rs 15,472 respectively.

Total number of shares traded yesterday declined by 21% to 73,084,843.

Meanwhile, the biggest contributor to yesterday's turnover was the 19th largest capitalized stock Access with Rs 235.8 million on a 6.4 million SV. Access closed, down 3.25% a share to Rs 35.70; while the 2nd biggest was the 5th largest capitalized stock Dialog with Rs 128.4 million on a 9.8 million SV. Dialog closed flat at Rs 13.10 a share.

The bourse however received a Rs 320.1 million net foreign inflow (NFI), taking NFIs in the year-to date to Rs 20.4 billion. NFIs were led by Access (Rs 193.1 million) and Dialog (Rs 124.8 million).

Market capitalization fell by 0.89% to Rs 3.023 trillion.
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