Sri Lankan shares fall to near six-week low on foreign selling

Feb 18 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares fell for a fourth straight session on Tuesday to a six-week low as foreign investors dumped the island nation's risky assets on a day of thin trading.

The main stock index ended lower 0.57 percent, or 34.45 points, at 6,021.66, its lowest close since Jan. 7. It has lost 3.62 percent in the last 10 straight session.

Foreign investors sold a net 229.52 million rupees ($1.75 million) worth of shares on Tuesday, extending outflows to 4.87 billion rupees in the past eight sessions as some offshore funds exited the market.

The bourse has seen 3.48 billion rupees of foreign outflows so far in 2014, after enjoying net inflows of 22.88 billion rupees last year.

Analysts said investors were waiting for direction on foreign selling and concerned over further outflows, though local investors are still optimistic about risky assets due to falling interest rates.

On Monday, Sri Lanka's central bank kept its policy rates steady at multi-year lows, with inflation expected to be contained throughout 2014 by "well-managed demand conditions and improved domestic supply".

Analysts said local investors were active in the market after interest rates on treasury bills eased to multi-year lows, making fixed-income assets unattractive.

Shares of Ceylon Tobacco Co Plc fell 2.44 percent to 1,209.70 rupees, while Distillers Sri Lanka Plc fell 3.3 percent to 208 rupees, pulling the overall index down.

Top conglomerate John Keells Holdings Plc lost 0.68 percent to close at 218.40 rupees.

The index has risen 1.84 percent so far this year, following a 4.8 percent gain in 2013.

The day's turnover was 604.1 million rupees, just half of this year's daily average of about 1.2 billion rupees. 

($1 = 130.8250 Sri Lanka rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)

Sri Lanka stocks close down 0.5-pct

Feb 18, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka stocks close 0.57 percent lower for the forth consecutive day with tobacco and diversified stocks losing ground amid net foreign selling, brokers said.

The Colombo benchmark All Share Price Index closed 34.45 points lower at 6,021.66, down 0.57 percent. The S&P SL20 closed 18.20 points lower at 3,288.04, down 0.55 percent.

Turnover was 604.12 million rupees, down from 613.42 million rupees a day earlier, with stocks of 122 firms closing in the red against 52 gainers.

Dialog closed flat at 9.20 rupees with 110.40 million rupees of off market transactions contributing to 18 percent of the daily turnover.

JKH’s W0022 warrants closed 60 cents lower at 60.00 rupees and its W0023 warrants closed 1.30 rupees lower at 60.70 rupees, attracting most number of trades during the day.

Foreigners bought 44.84 million rupees worth shares while selling 274.37 million rupees of shares.

Ceylon Tobacco Company closed 30.30 rupees lower at 1,209.70 rupees and Distilleries closed 7.10 rupees lower at 208.00 rupees, contributing most to the index drop.

JKH closed 1.50 rupees lower at 218.40 rupees and Bukit Darah ended 2.70 rupees lower at 592.30 rupees.

Commercial Leasing and Finance closed 10 cents higher at 4.20 rupees and Ceylinco Insurance closed 19.00 rupees higher at 1,346.00 rupees.

Aitken Spence closed 90 cents higher at 101.00 rupees and Nestle Lanka ended flat at 2,100.00 rupees.

Carson Cumberbatch ended flat at 350.00 rupees and Cargills Ceylon also closed flat at 135.00 rupees.

Nawaloka Hospital profits dip 43%, finance costs up 70%

By J. Kurukulasuriya

Ceylon FT: Nawaloka Hospitals PLC has settled dollar loans to the extent of Rs 773 million during the quarter, being part redemption of the 15 million unsecured redeemable debentures issued in September 2013, nine-month results for the period ended 31 December 2013 show. Group finance costs increased 70%. The nine month profit of Rs 236 million is a 43% drop compared to the corresponding nine-month period. Nine-month group revenue of Rs 3,210 million and all expenses except finance costs, were virtually unchanged, but operating income increased to 55% to Rs 45 million. Up to 31December the group had paid Rs 870 million as an advance payment for land acquired.

Dividends due to shareholders amounting to Rs 2 million remained "unclaimed."

The stated capital of the company is Rs 1,207 million, divided into 1,409,505,596 shares.

Director H.K.J. Dharmadasa is the top shareholder with 33% of the shares while Nawaloka Construction Company Ltd., holds 31% and director Dr T. Senthilverl holds 22%. Other significant shareholders are the National Savings Bank, Bank of Ceylon, and Seylan Bank.

The directors hold 55% of the share capital and the public hold 12.73% of the share capital.

The share traded at a high of Rs 3.10 and a low of Rs 3.00, the lowest price seen since 
31st March was Rs 2.60, as shown by the quarterly report.

The net asset value of the shares was Rs 2.80 at 31st December.

www.ceylontoday.lk

Healthcare, IT, retail and financial ops boost Softlogic profits

Ceylon FT: Softlogic Holdings PLC showed a profit of Rs 803.12 million for the nine months ended 31 December 2013, up 321.55% from a year ago boosted by strong performances in healthcare, IT, retail and financial services operations, interim financial results showed.

Revenue grew 14.32% to Rs 21.7 billion and gross profit grew 22.7% to Rs 7.4 billion.

Net finance costs fell 14.7% to Rs 1.38 billion, distribution costs increased 22.9% to Rs 1 billion and administrative expenses grew 21.33% to 4.39 billion.

Change in fair value of investment property amounted to a Rs 7.4 million gain and share of profit of equity account investees fell 24.5% to Rs 8.2 million.

The IT segment reported a profit of Rs 195 million, up 21.11% from Rs 161 million a year ago.

"The IT business has been moving forward successfully. The business is now diversifying its focus beyond end-user computing towards enterprise computing. We provide nearly 50%-60% of storage business to EMC, the largest storage supplier in the country. We also tied up with EMC and Lenovo for the back-up recovery system space. A number of contracts have already been struck for this solution. We are targeting the end-user computing via Lenovo and Apple.

Considerable effort has been expended in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for corporate software security solution," Softlogic Holdings Chairman Ashok Pathirage told shareholders.

The retail sector reported a profit of Rs 412.3 million, up 61.3% from 255.5 million a year ago.

"...with the implication of the new VAT law restricting the retail industry's overall exemption of sales for qualifying items the retail industry is unsure as to how to treat the negative impact arising from this without affecting consumer demand. Industry as a whole has appealed to the authorities in this instance, otherwise, the future of the consumer electronics and durables segment may find it increasingly difficult to operate should these warning go unheeded," he said.

The leisure sector saw losses expand 80.3% to Rs 62.2 million, up from Rs 34.5 million a year ago.

"The hotel project at Bentota - Centara Ceysands Luxury Resort & Spa -is nearing its completion. This new resort, situated in idyllic location with a blend of luxury and unprecedented style, will open its doors for external guests in April 2014; hence this would add to the group's consolidated performance in FY14/15E. 

Construction of Movenpick City Hotel is progressing as per the envisaged time lines. With the completion of the transfer floor at Level six as of 10 February, the target date for opening the five star hotel remains on course – 15 September," Pathirage said.

The automobile sector saw losses contract to Rs 20.5 million, down 26.5% from Rs 27.9 million a year ago.

"The automobile sector is through a challenging phase until such a time the removal of those selective duty waivers is instituted. However, we are now focusing in related diversification to overcome the systemic challenges," the chairman said.

Financial services reported a turnaround, making Rs 56.7 million in profits after a Rs 322.3 million loss the previous year.

"...(the) comprehensive financial service portfolio is well positioned to continue on its platform of aggressive growth, leveraging on its accelerated growth in customer base acquired from diverse sectors of the overall group. Total assets of the sector were Rs 27.4 billion as at 31 December 2013 and recorded an increase of 15% for the nine-month period compared with Rs 23.8 billion as at 31 March 2013."

The healthcare sector reported a Rs 1.02 billion profit, up 50.22% from Rs 679 million a year ago.

"The hospital chain witnessed strong performance in line with their business peak period during the latter of the calendar year when corporate medical insurance claims also crystallize. The management is quite confident of commissioning a Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Central Hospital Limited during 4QFY14. 

Asiri Hospital Holdings acquired 37.4% stake in the Central Hospitals Ltd., for a total consideration of Rs 2.4 billion from the hospital's private placement investors. Asiri Hospital Holdings now holds 90% effectively in the Central Hospitals Ltd. This assuredly would lead to further enhancement of Asiri group earnings and, hence, the overall Softlogic Holdings earnings, in the upcoming periods," Pathirage said.

A loss of Rs 798.6 million was reported in 'other' segments, up 53.5% from a Rs 520.3 million loss a year ago.
www.ceylontoday.lk

Sri Lankan shares fall to over 5-week low on foreign selling

Feb 17 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares fell for a third-straight session on Monday to a more than five-week low as foreign investors continued to dump the island nation's risky assets, contrary to inflows into other emerging markets in Asia.

Before the market opened, Sri Lanka's central bank kept policy rates steady at multi-year lows, with inflation expected to be contained throughout 2014 by "well-managed demand conditions and improved domestic supply".

The main stock index ended 0.45 percent or 27.28 points weaker at 6,056.11, its lowest close since Jan. 8. It has lost over 3.07 percent in the last nine sessions through Monday.

Foreign investors sold a net 144.7 million rupees ($1.11 million) worth of shares on Monday, extending the foreign outflow to 4.64 billion rupees in the past seven days as some offshore funds exited the market.

The bourse has seen 3.25 billion rupees of foreign outflow so far in 2014, after enjoying a net inflow of 22.88 billion rupees last year.

Analysts said the market was waiting for directions on the foreign selling and concerned over further foreign outflows.

Analysts said local investors are active in the market after interest rates on treasury bills eased to multi-year lows, making fixed-income assets unattractive.

Top conglomerate John Keells Holdings Plc lost 0.95 percent, to 219.90 rupees, pulling the overall index down.

National Development Bank Plc, which posted a 93.5 percent drop in its December-quarter net profit, rose 1.26 percent.

The index has risen 2.42 percent so far this year, following a 4.8 percent gain in 2013. It fell in the previous two years.

The day's turnover was 612.7 million rupees, less than this year's daily average of about 1.2 billion rupees. 

($1 = 130.8250 Sri Lanka rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Anand Basu)