Sri Lankan stocks rise to 3-wk high; DFCC boosts turnover

Dec 24 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan stocks rose on Wednesday, with trading in development lender DFCC Bank boosting turnover in otherwise thin pre-Christmas trade, shrugging off concerns over political uncertainty ahead of upcoming elections dented sentiment.

Turnover hit a near six-week high of 3.84 billion rupees ($29.29 million) after an individual investor in DFCC Bank sold part of his stake, dealers said. Wednesday's turnover was more than double this year's daily average of 1.42 billion rupees, stock exchange data showed.

The main stock index gained 0.35 percent, or 25.20 points, to close at 7,263.25, its highest close since Dec. 3.

DFCC Bank ended flat at 218.50 rupees. Top conglomerate John Keells Holdings rose 0.28 percent to 250 rupees.

"Apart from the DFCC deal, the sentiment is dull because of the political uncertainty and holiday mood. We see the index on the sidelines until the elections," a stockbroker said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's United People's Freedom Alliance lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time in more than four years after two ruling party legislators, including a cabinet minister, defected to join the opposition on Monday.

Fifteen legislators, including former health minister Mithripala Sirisena, who is challenging Rajapaksa's bid for the third term, have defected after the president announced snap elections last month. Two opposition legislators have left to join the ruling party.

Political analysts see a tight race between Rajapaksa and Sirisena, whose New Democratic Front has promised to eliminate rampant corruption and reduce prices of essential goods and fuel by cutting taxes.

Rajapaksa said on Tuesday he would ensure good governance and media freedom if he bags a third term.

Net foreign inflows into stocks in the session were 11.7 million rupees, extending net inflows to 21.64 billion rupees so far this year, exchange data showed.

($1 = 131.1000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez, editing by Louise Heavens)

BIA records increased passenger handling

Mattala Airport monthly revenue tops Rs.12.5 million

Shirajiv Sirimane (shirajivs@gmail.com)

The Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) handled 7.3 million passenger movements in 2013,22% in excess of its designed capacity, exhibiting a remarkable growth of 72% over a period of 5 years.

Of these, approximately 19% are transit movements, which indicates a growing potential for achieving passenger hub status. Cargo operations have also flourished with a throughput of 192,550 metric tonnes in 2013. In order to cope with the capacity problem the phase II stage 2 of BIA development project was launched in September 2014.

Sri Lanka’s aviation industry has snowballed into being a key player in the national economy now providing rapid international access via two international airports serving the two national carriers, SriLankan and Mihin and 23 other carriers connecting 60 destinations worldwide.

The commissioning of the Mattala – Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) at Hambantota in March 2013 in addition to enhancing the total national passenger and cargo handling capacity, has had a positive ripple effect of increasing the over flying air traffic within Sri Lanka’s assigned airspace by 100% with many operators opting to make their long-haul flights through it, given the enhanced emergency diversion capacity at Mattala. These include the ultra-high capacity modern aircraft like the Airbus 380.

The airport charges that include Landing, Parking, Aerobridges, Rentals, Embarkation Tax have totalled Rs. 224,256,565 as at November 30, 2014, which is an average of Rs.12.5 million monthly, Chairman Col. Prasanna Wickremasuriya said.

Due to availability of an airport in Mattala, which can be used for an emergency many airlines are now flying over Sri Lanka for which they have to pay a fee.

Amidst these growths, Sri Lanka enjoys the fifth rank in the Asia Pacific Region in respect of effective safety implementation as determined by the ICAO’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP).

On completion of the BIA development project, its capacity will increase to 15 million passenger movements per annum. MRIA too is to be developed to handle 6 million passenger movements per annum. Vision 2020 encompasses the increase of the national carrier fleet to 26 aircraft thus gearing the country to attract 4.5 million tourists annually by year 2020.

MRIA offers lucrative investment opportunities that are directly linked to aviation as well as those catalyzed by it. A few examples are domestic aviation, MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) services for airlines, freight forwarding, tourism, hospitality, flying schools, industrial parks, adventure and recreation.
www.dailynews.lk

Distilleries transfer 17.9 mn. ComBank to Melstacorp

Indices down on lackluster trading

The crossing of a large block of slightly over 17.9 million Commercial Bank (voting) shares held by the Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka in a deal worth Rs. 2.8 billion dominated the Colombo bourse yesterday in an otherwise lackluster day with a turnover of Rs. 3.38 billion posted, up from the previous day’s Rs. 868 million, with both indices down and losers comfortably outpacing gainers.

"Distilleries transferred the long-held block most probably to Melstacorp, a related party acting as a holding company for the group’s equity portfolio," a broker said. "The price at which the transaction was done was eight rupees below market."

Combank was traded on the floor at between Rs. 165 and Rs. 170 closing four rupees up at Rs. 169 on 0.1 million shares, contributing Rs. 17.3 million to the day’s turnover.

Apart from the ComBank crossing, 0.1 million JKH was crossed at Rs. 248.40 in a deal worth Rs. 24.8 million. JKH was traded on the floor between Rs. 248 and Rs. 251 contributing Rs. 31.8 million to turnover.

There was a net foreign inflow Rs. 112.6 million with purchases of Rs. 230.3 million and sales of Rs. 117.7 million.

Brokers and analysts expected current market trends to continue until the election is concluded on Jan. 8. But they said that if there’s violence, there will be a dip. Some brokers said there were investors who were collecting stocks they were confident of but there was little depth in the market.

The All Share Price Index closed 13.52 points down (0.19%) while the S&P SL20 Index lost a fraction of a point (0.44 points/0.01% with 92 losers ahead of 62 gainers while 55 counters closed flat.

"The ASPI ended lower for the second day of the week with selling in the manufacturing, diversified and banking, finance & insurance sectors. Turnover exceeded Rs. 3bn largely due to crossings of Rs. 2.8bn on COMB," John Keells Stock Brokers said in a market wrap.

Chevron led the floor trades closing flat at Rs. 399 on nearly 0.2 million shares contributing Rs. 67.3 million to turnover. Ceylon Tobacco followed, also closing flat at Rs. 1,015 contributing Rs. 54.1 million with Access, closing Rs. 1.40 down at Rs. 34.70 on 1.6 million shares contributing Rs. 45.1 million running third.
www.island.lk

NDB Investment Bank successfully concludes Siyapatha Finance debenture

NDB Investment Bank Ltd. (NDBIB), the premier investment bank in Sri Lanka, acted as Managers and Financial Advisors to the successfully-concluded debenture issue of Rs. 1.0 billion for Siyapatha Finance Ltd. (SFL).

The Issue which was oversubscribed shortly after opening and was closed on the same day. SFL decided to exercise the option to accept a further five million debentures (Rs. 500 million) in addition to the initial issue of five million debentures (Rs. 500 million) as there was a good demand for the issue, mostly from institutional investors.

Siyapatha Finance issued rated unsecured subordinated redeemable debentures with a tenor of five years with interest payable annually; and will be listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange.

SFL proposes to utilise the funds raised through this debenture issue to expand and strengthen the capital base of the company and help maintain the capital adequacy requirements as stipulated by Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The funds raised would reinforce the company’s Tier II capital and facilitate future expansion of operations and the asset base. It will also allow for the settlement of short term money market loans and restructuring of the balance sheet in order to reduce mismatches in funding exposures. This will minimise interest rate risk arising due to frequent re-pricing cycles.

Gaining access to additional source of funds from non-deposit sources will open up the capital market funding (public listed) for the company and provide access to a wider investor base.

NDBIB has been successfully raising funds for Siyapatha Finance over the years through debt instruments such as securitisations, unlisted debentures and commercial paper. The repeat business demonstrates client confidence in NDBIB’s capability in successfully placing debentures under challenging market conditions and the professional integrity in maintaining process transparency.

This is the fourth debenture issue NDBIB has successfully concluded during 2014. NDBIB is the market leader in debenture issues for the Non-Financial Institution category.

NDB Investment Bank is a fully-owned subsidiary of NDB Capital Holdings PLC, which is a subsidiary of National Development Bank PLC, providing full-service investment banking services to its diverse clientele.
www.ft.lk