Aug 28 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan stocks edged up on Thursday, hovering near a three-year high, led by conglomerate John Keells Holdings Plc in low volume trade with foreign investors buying into risky assets, brokers said.
The main stock index ended 0.1 percent, or 6.85 points up at 6,991.76, near its highest close since Aug. 18, 2011 hit on Tuesday.
Analysts said an increase in speculative trading in fundamentally weak shares could dent the healthy growth the index has seen this year.
The index has gained 18.25 percent so far this year.
"The market is slightly over heated that's why we are seeing it stagnate at these levels around 7000 points for a while till the next earnings season," said Dimantha Mathew, manager, research, at First Capital Equities (Pvt) Ltd.
"There is no major reason for the index to come down."
Analysts said the market is struggling to rise above a psychological barrier of 7,000 points which has turned it to a technical barrier now.
The bourse has been trading in an over bought region since July and on Thursday the Relative Strength Index was at 72.573 points, above its upper neutral region of 70, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Market heavyweight John Keells Holdings Plc, which led the overall gain in the index, rose 1.59 percent to 248.90 rupees, while Lanka IOC Plc rose 3.41 percent to 42.40 rupees.
Shares in Distillers Sri Lanka Plc rose 0.70 percent to 209 rupees.
Thursday's turnover stood at 887.2 million rupees ($6.82 million), well below this year's daily average of 1.2 billion rupees.
Foreign investors were net buyers of 102.7 million rupees worth of shares on Thursday, extending the year-to-date net foreign inflow to 8.1 billion rupees.
The central bank rejected all 91-day treasury bill bids for the second straight week at an auction, while yields on the 182-day and 364-day treasury bills held steady at a weekly auction on Wednesday.
($1 = 130.1800 Sri Lankan rupee)
The main stock index ended 0.1 percent, or 6.85 points up at 6,991.76, near its highest close since Aug. 18, 2011 hit on Tuesday.
Analysts said an increase in speculative trading in fundamentally weak shares could dent the healthy growth the index has seen this year.
The index has gained 18.25 percent so far this year.
"The market is slightly over heated that's why we are seeing it stagnate at these levels around 7000 points for a while till the next earnings season," said Dimantha Mathew, manager, research, at First Capital Equities (Pvt) Ltd.
"There is no major reason for the index to come down."
Analysts said the market is struggling to rise above a psychological barrier of 7,000 points which has turned it to a technical barrier now.
The bourse has been trading in an over bought region since July and on Thursday the Relative Strength Index was at 72.573 points, above its upper neutral region of 70, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Market heavyweight John Keells Holdings Plc, which led the overall gain in the index, rose 1.59 percent to 248.90 rupees, while Lanka IOC Plc rose 3.41 percent to 42.40 rupees.
Shares in Distillers Sri Lanka Plc rose 0.70 percent to 209 rupees.
Thursday's turnover stood at 887.2 million rupees ($6.82 million), well below this year's daily average of 1.2 billion rupees.
Foreign investors were net buyers of 102.7 million rupees worth of shares on Thursday, extending the year-to-date net foreign inflow to 8.1 billion rupees.
The central bank rejected all 91-day treasury bill bids for the second straight week at an auction, while yields on the 182-day and 364-day treasury bills held steady at a weekly auction on Wednesday.
($1 = 130.1800 Sri Lankan rupee)
(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)
No comments:
Post a Comment