NDB Capital Holdings to invest in Sri Lanka’s RIL Property IPO

ECONOMYNEXT – NDB Capital Holdings Limited (NCAP) will take up part of the Initial Public Offering of RIL Property Limited (RIL), the owner and operator of commercial office space in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, which opens next week.

According to the prospectus, NCAP has been identified by RIL as a Cornerstone Investor for the IPO at the issue price of 8 Rupees a share.

RIL intends to offer 120 million ordinary voting shares in the IPO opening on April 4, 2017, to raise 960 million Rupees.

NCAP has committed to subscribe for up to 25,000,000 shares amounting to 200 million Rupees via the Non-Retail Investor Category of the IPO.

RIL has agreed to ensure that NCAP is allotted a minimum of 15,000,000 shares amounting to 120 million Rupees.

In the event of an oversubscription, this would result in NCAP being allocated 12.50 percent of the total shares issued via the IPO and having a shareholding of 2.50 percent of RIL.

In the event of an undersubscription, NCAP would be allocated 25,000,000 shares amounting to 40.00 percent of the total shares issued via the IPO and would have a 4.61 percent shareholding in the company.

NCAP has voluntarily undertaken not to sell the shares for six months starting from the listing date.

NCAP is the parent company of NDB Investment Bank Limited, joint managers to the issue.

In the event of an undersubscription, Commercial Bank of Ceylon, the IPO underwriter, will subscribe up to a maximum of 37,500,000 shares at the offer price amounting to a total value of 300 million Rupees, 31.25 percent of the total IPO and 6.25 percent of the total shares of the company post-IPO.

Sri Lanka’s Browns sells 61-pct stake Agalawatte Plantations

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Browns Group has sold a 61% stake in Agalawatte Plantations to D. R. Investment (Pvt) Ltd, a stock exchange filing said.

Browns sold 15,274,527 million shares at Rs18 a share in a Rs274.9 million deal.

Its controversial acquisition of the loss-making Agalawatte Plantations from Mackwoods group had been challenged in court.

Nestlé’s Sri Lanka unit gains on bourse ahead of financial year-end

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lankan stock market players Thursday pushed up the price of the local unit of food multinational Nestlé, a day before the financial year-end for most companies and fund managers, analysts said.

The share price of Nestlé Lanka rose Rs89.2 to Rs2,100 with just 100 shares traded on the Colombo stock exchange, boosting the All Share Price Index by 10.9 points, the biggest contributor to the day’s gain in the benchmark index.

Analysts had warned investors to watch for ‘window dressing’ on the CSE ahead of the March financial year-end when share prices are sometimes pushed up.

Nestlé Lanka has a market capitalisation of Rs112.2 billion and accounts for 4.62% of the CSE total market cap.

Sri Lanka 03-month Treasury Bill yield reaches 9.63-pct

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lankan Treasury Bill yields rose across the board at Wednesday’s auction with the 03-month bill yield up 06 basis points to 9.63 percent, the public debt office, a unit of the central bank, said in a statement.

The 06-month bill yield rose 16 basis points to hit 10.62 percent while the 01-year bill yield also rose 16 basis points to reach 10.98 percent.

The public debt department got Rs48.3 billion worth of bids and accepted bids worth Rs17 billion.

Sri Lankan shares rise for 3rd session on foreign buying, window dressing

Reuters: Sri Lankan shares rose for a third straight session on Thursday, closing at their highest in more than one week, helped by foreign investor buying and quarter-end window dressing, stockbrokers said.

The Colombo stock index closed 0.31 percent firmer at 6,040.18, its highest close since March 21.

On Monday, it had closed at its lowest since March 15, 2016 after the central bank tightened its monetary policy on Friday by 25 basis points to contain high inflationary expectations.

Stockbrokers said rising interest rates have kept most investors on the sidelines. Yields on treasury bills rose 6-16 basis points at a weekly auction on Wednesday.

"Local buying demand is increasing and the market is moving up on blue chips. Buying interest from the retail side is slowly improving," said Dimantha Mathew, head of research, First Capital Equities (Pvt) Ltd.

"Local buying interest has now started to improve but the foreign side is still dominating."

Foreign investors net bought shares worth 200 million rupees ($1.32 million) on Thursday, raising the year-to-date net foreign inflow to 4.58 billion rupees in equities.

Turnover stood at 1.18 billion rupees, well above this year's daily average of 718.3 million rupees.

Shares of Nestle Lanka Plc jumped 4.46 percent, Ceylon Theatres Plc rose 10.30 percent, Ceylon Cold Stores Plc gained 0.82 percent, and Commercial Bank of Ceylon Plc, the country's biggest listed lender, ended up 0.93 percent. 

($1 = 151.8500 Sri Lankan rupees) 

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

Sri Lankan shares rise on foreign investor buying; turnover hits 1-mth high

Reuters: Sri Lankan shares closed slightly stronger on Tuesday, recovering from a more than one-year closing low hit in the previous session, as foreign investors bought battered stocks while block deals pushed the day's turnover to a one-month high.

The Colombo stock index closed 0.17 percent firmer at 5,985.08, closing below a key psychological level of 6,000.

It had closed at its lowest since March 15, 2016 on Monday as investors sold shares of lenders after the central bank tightened its monetary policy on Friday.

The central bank raised its benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points for the first time in eight months to contain high inflationary expectations and a possible acceleration of demand-side inflationary pressures.

"The market is up on continued foreign buying while block deals pushed the turnover up," said Atchuthan Srirangan, a senior research analyst with First Capital Equities (Pvt) Ltd.

"Retail investors are still on the sidelines as they want to see a clear picture."

Foreign investors net bought shares worth 401.2 million rupees ($2.64 million) on Tuesday, raising the year-to-date net foreign inflow to 4.29 billion rupees in equities.

Turnover stood at 2.32 billion rupees ($15.29 million), the highest since Feb. 28 and well above this year's daily average of 716.1 million rupees.

As of Monday's close, the index had lost 2.18 percent since March 7 when the IMF called for monetary policy tightening if credit growth or inflation do not abate.

The stock index moved to "neutral" territory from "oversold", with the 14-day relative strength index rising to 30.957 versus Monday's 27.488, Thomson Reuters data showed. A level between 30 and 70 indicates the market is neutral.

Shares of Dialog Axiata Plc rose 2.70 percent, while Sri Lanka Telecom Plc climbed 1.55 percent. 

($1 = 151.8000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

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

Sri Lankan shares slump to one-year low as banks fall

Reuters: Sri Lankan shares fell to a more than one-year closing low on Monday in dull trade as investors sold shares of lenders after the central bank tightened monetary policy in the previous session, dealers said.

On Friday, the central bank raised its benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points for the first time in eight months to contain high inflationary expectations and a possible acceleration of demand side inflationary pressures.

The Colombo stock index closed 0.36 percent weaker at 5,974.94, its lowest close since March 15, 2016. The index broke below a key psychological barrier of 6,000 on Wednesday.

"Margins (calls) are still affecting the market. Buying interest still hasn't come back into the market," said Dimantha Mathew, head of research, First Capital Equities (Pvt) Ltd.

"Investors took the rate hike as a positive as it will give some kind of stability in the economy and the hike was less than what they expected. But investors are still waiting for the market to bottom out to get in."

Turnover stood at 429 million rupees ($12.7 million), less than this year's daily average of 688.4 million rupees.

The index had lost 2.18 percent since March 7 after the IMF called for monetary policy tightening if credit growth or inflation do not abate.

The bourse fell to "oversold" territory from "neutral", with the 14-day relative strength index dropping to 27.488 points versus Friday's 30.480, Thomson Reuters data showed. A level between 30 and 70 indicates the market is neutral.

Foreign investors net bought shares worth 76.3 million rupees on Monday, raising the year-to-date net foreign inflow to 3.89 billion rupees in equities.

Shares in Melstacorp Plc fell 3.06 percent while the biggest listed lender Commercial Bank of Ceylon Plc fell 1.59 percent. 

($1 = 151.4000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Vyas Mohan)