Sri Lanka bourse ends at 3-yr high on financials amid speculative trading

Aug 21 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka stocks hovered around three-year highs on Thursday, led by financials due to lower interest rates, but analysts said increasing speculative trading in fundamentally weak shares could impede the healthy growth the index has had this year.

The main stock index ended up 0.07 percent, or 4.78 points, at 7,004.75, its highest close since Aug. 18, 2011.

The index has gained 18.4 percent so far this year.

"Shares with weak fundamentals are also moving up from this week. If this set of stocks gathers momentum, it could be attractive for retail investors," Babushka Samarasinghe, the COO at Soft logic Stockbrokers, told Reuters.

"It could sharply increase the market risk as in the past," he said, referring to the index plummeting more than 20 percent after it hit a record peak in February 2011.

Shares of investment firm and broker Taprobane Holdings jumped 66.7 percent to 4.50 rupees in heavy volume which stockbrokers cited as a speculative move, while market heavyweight John Keells Holdings gained 1.51 percent to 248.70 rupees.

Thursday's turnover was 1.47 billion rupees ($11.3 million), higher than this year's daily average of 1.19 billion rupees.

The bourse saw net foreign inflows of 88.1 million rupees on Thursday, extending the year-to-date inflows to 7.57 billion rupees.

(1 US dollar = 130.2000 Sri Lanka rupee) 

(Reporting By Shihar Aneez; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)

Sri Lanka stocks close up 0.1-pct

Aug 21, 2014 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's stocks crossed the key psychological barrier of 7,000 points Thursday, reaching a three year high, brokers said.

The Colombo benchmark All Share Price Index closed 4.78 points higher at 7,004.75, up 0.07 percent. The S&P SL20 closed 0.30 points higher at 3,862.91, up 0.01 percent.

Turnover was 1.47 billion rupees, down from 1.78 billion rupees a day earlier with 119 stocks closed positive against 91 negative.

Lanka IOC closed 10 cents higher at 39.60 rupees with off-market transactions of 71.44 million rupees changing hands at 37.60 rupees per share contributing 5 percent of the daily turnover.

The aggregate value of all off-the-floor deals represented 11 percent of the turnover.

Lanka Century Investments closed 2.50 rupees higher at 15.50 rupees and Its W0006 warrants closed 90 cents higher at 3.30 rupees, attracting most number of trades during the day.

John Keells Holdings closed 3.70 rupees higher at 248.70 rupees, contributing most to the index gain.

JKH’s W0022 warrants closed 40 cents higher at 70.40 rupees and its W0023 warrants closed flat at 80.00 rupees.

Taprobane Holdings closed 1.80 rupees higher at 4.50 rupees and CT Holdings closed 3.70 rupees higher at 158.70 rupees.

Lion Brewery Ceylon closed 14.90 rupees higher at 624.90 rupees and Ceylon Tobacco Company closed 11.70 rupees lower at 1,188.30 rupees.

Bukit Darah closed 26.00 rupees lower at 680.00 rupees.

NDB Capital Holdings records Rs. 207 m PAT

NDB Capital Holdings PLC continued its impressive run through the second quarter of 2014 by recording a notable consolidated quarterly income of Rs. 321 million which translated to a consolidated PAT of Rs. 207 million.

At Company level, the quarterly income and PAT stood at Rs. 173 million and Rs. 153 million respectively. In 2014 alone NCAP Group has been decorated with 21 well-recognised international awards further consolidating its position as the leading investment banking group in the country. This includes 13 awards by the Sri Lankan operation as well as eight awards by its investment banking arm in Bangladesh.

The first half performance of the group also recorded a similar growth trend as the income improved by 13% from Rs. 602 million (adjusted) to Rs. 682 million. The net profitability too grew by 22% to Rs. 454 million in 2014 compared to the adjusted profit of Rs. 373 million in 2013.

The reason for the adjustment is due to NCAP Group recording an extraordinary profit during the first quarter of 2013owing to income from investing approximately Rs. 6.7 billion in cash it received via the divestment of both direct and indirect stakes held in Aviva NDB Insurance PLC.

However, this cash was returned to the shareholders towards the end of 2013Q1 and was not available for the Company for investments beyond that period. The remarkable performance in the first half of 2014 was mainly fuelled by efficient asset allocation and successful investment strategies. The Group annualised ROE also increased to 14.3% in the first half of 2014 from 11.5% (adjusted) in H1 2013.

Chairman Ashok Pathirage while commending the impressive performance of the NCAP Group said: “Our Group has been able to expand our leadership position in the investment banking sector within the region as we clutched the ‘Best Investment Bank 2014’ award by Euromoney Magazine, both in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. NDB Investment Bank won the award for the third year running. It was the first time this esteemed award was presented in Bangladesh and NCAP Group became the first-ever Asian investment bank to have won this award in two countries.”

He added: “NDB Wealth Management continued to progress strongly as it reached Rs. 80 billion assets under management (AUM) for the first time in Sri Lanka, elevating NCAP Group’s total AUM to over Rs. 82 billion.”

CEO Vajira Kulatilaka stated: “As evidenced by the first quarter performance, NCAP Group is well on track to record another great year capitalising on the upsurge in the country’s capital markets experienced during the late part of the second quarter. With our private equity initiative gaining momentum and majority of the investors in-principally being in agreement for their capital infusions to the Fund, NCAP Group can soon successfully venture into and cater to another important segment of the country’s economy.”

NCAP is a subsidiary of National Development Bank PLC.
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