Colombo Stock Exchange Market Review – 17th Oct 2016

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Colombo Stock Exchange Trade Summary 17-Oct-2016

Colombo bourse slumped for the sixth consecutive session on Monday amid low market activity. All Share index conclude the day with a loss of 29.85 index points or 0.46% at 6,452.69 while 20-scrip S&P SL index lost 16.68 index points or 0.46% to end the day at 3,598.44. 

Price drops in high caps namely, Commercial Bank (closed at LKR 146.00, -1.4%), John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 151.00, -0.7%) and People’s Leasing & Finance (closed at LKR 18.10, -2.2%) drove the index performance to the negative territory.

Daily market turnover fell to a six week low of LKR 291mn. Expolanka Holdings was the top contributor to the turnover with LKR 82mn underpinned by two crossings of 11mn shares at LKR 6.50. Counter accounted for 28% of the day’s turnover. John Keells Holdings (LKR 36mn), Ceylon Grain Elevators (LKR 12mn) and ACL Plastics (LKR 12mn) were among top contributors.

Market breadth was negative where out of 200 scripts, 111 slipped, 25 advanced while 64 remained unchanged.

High investor activity was witnessed in Hayleys Fabric & Teejay Lanka, subsequent to the Premier’s visit to Brussels to discuss on GSP+. Hayleys Fabric remained at LKR 17.80 and Teejay Lanka declined by 1.7% to LKR 46.00. Further, Ceylon Grain Elevators, Access Engineering and Sinhaputhra Finance preference share witnessed high investor activity.

Foreign investors were net buyers with a net foreign inflow of LKR 1mn. Foreign participation was 13%. Net foreign inflows were seen in Expolanka Holdings (LKR 2.0mn), John Keells Holdings (LKR 1.4mn), Vidullanka (LKR 0.9mn) while net foreign outflow was mainly seen in Central Industries (LKR 1.0mn).

Meanwhile, according to External Sector Performance report published by CBSL, trade gap has reduced by 10%YoY to USD 541.6mn in July 2016 amid 6.6%YoY drop in imports. Tourism earnings improved by 19.1% while workers’ remittances recorded a drop of 4.4% in July 2016.

Source: LSL

Sri Lankan shares fall for 6th day; turnover slumps to 6-wk low

Reuters: Sri Lankan shares closed down for a sixth straight session on Monday with turnover slumping to a six-week low as cautious investors awaited a flurry of corporate results and next month's national budget.

The benchmark index of the Colombo Stock Exchange ended 0.46 percent weaker at 6,452.69, its lowest close since Sept. 21. It shed 1.5 percent last week.

Turnover stood at 291.3 million rupees ($1.99 million), its lowest since Sept. 5 and less than half of this year's daily average of around 745 million rupees.

Foreign investors, who have sold a net 2.34 billion rupees worth of shares so far this year, bought less than 700,000 rupees worth equities on Monday.

John Keells Holdings fell 0.66 percent, while top lender Commercial Bank of Ceylon lost 1.35 percent.

Sri Lanka's quarterly earnings season started last week but the bulk of locally listed firms will not report until late October or early November.

($1 = 146.3700 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; editing by John Stonestreet)