Wednesday 1 April 2015

Sri Lankan shares jump 1.4 percent as investors buy in oversold bourse

(Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares rose 1.4 percent on Wednesday to their highest close in nearly one week as investors bought risky assets across the board in an oversold market.

Foreign investors bought a net 72.6 million rupees ($546,275) worth of shares, marking their first net buy in eight sessions and extending the net buying this year to 2.98 billion rupees.

The main stock index lost 7.31 percent in the 21 sessions through Monday and hit a more than eight-month closing low as investors offloaded their holdings to settle margin trading and on concerns about political stability.

The index ended 1.4 percent, or 95.74 points, firmer at 6,916.08 on Wednesday, its highest close since March 26.

"Across the board buying was there today. Slowly buying came into the market," said Dimantha Mathew, research manager at First Capital Equities (Pvt) Ltd.

"The positive sentiment will continue, but with the holiday season we may not see high volumes."

The market's 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) had fallen below 30 on March 30, Thomson Reuters data showed. A level of 30 or lower indicates the market is oversold. On Wednesday, it rose to 36.148 from Tuesday's 22.425.

Analysts expect trading to stay thin through mid-April ahead of a long traditional Sinhala-Tamil New Year holiday and amid political uncertainty.

Shares in Ceylon Tobacco Company Plc rose 2.55 percent, while Dialog Axiata Plc jumped 4.81 percent.

The day's turnover was 616.5 million rupees ($4.64 million), more than half of this year's daily average of 1.17 billion rupees. 

($1 = 132.9000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

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