Sri Lanka's Expolanka Holdings March net up 21-pct

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka-based Expolanka Holdings, an international logistics company, said group profits rose 21% to Rs309 million in the March 2018 quarter from a year earlier.

Quarterly sales of the firm, controlled by Japan’s SG Holdings, rose 24% to Rs18.8 billion over the period, according to interim accounts filed with the stock exchange.

Earnings per share for the quarter were 16 cents. Expolanka shares were trading at Rs4.60, up 10 cents or 2.2% Friday.

EPS for the year to 31 March 2018 were 36 cents with net profit down 26% to Rs711 million from the previous year although sales were up 22% to Rs77.5 billion.

Annual profits from the group’s main logistics business were down despite a big increase in sales with profit from the leisure sector also down along with a sharp fall in sales while investment segment losses were lower, the accounts showed.

Sri Lanka’s Tokyo Cement in Rs285mn March quarter loss

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Tokyo Cement Company (Lanka) PLC has reported a Rs285 million loss in the March 2018 quarter compared with a profit of Rs911 million a year ago.

Group sales fell two percent to Rs8.8 billion over the period, according to interim accounts filed with the stock exchange.

The loss per share for the quarter was 71 cents compared to earnings of Rs2.27 the previous year. The stock was trading at Rs44, down Rs4.90 (10.02%) Friday morning.

In the year to 31 March 2018, Tokyo Cement made a net profit of Rs2.27 billion although sales were down one percent to Rs36 billion.

Sri Lanka vehicle registrations up 21-pct in April

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's vehicles registrations grew 21 percent from a year earlier to 40,428 units in April 2018, driven by small cars and motorcycles, an analysis by an equities research houses shows.

Motor cars led by Suzuki Wagon-R vehicles rose 107 percent to 5,190 units in April 2018 from a year earlier after a tax change, JB Securities, a Colombo-based brokerage shows.

Vans also rose 36 percent to 1,020 units.

Motorcycles purchased by less-affluent persons to gain mobility, rose 13.8 percent from a year earlier to 29,855 units.

Sri Lanka's people had been hit by continuous currency deprecation which tends to eat away purchasing power by pushing up the price of traded goods.

Three-wheeler registrations was flat at 1,469 units, hurt by an urban-elitist tax, credit restrictions on top of currency depreciation.

JB Securities said three wheelers were no longer affordable to the less-affluent, at a price of 755,000 of which 420,000 could be taxes.

Three wheelers are held in contempt by car-owning urbanites, though they play a vital role for people's mobility of in rural regions now.

So-called re-conditioned cars were 5,047 units in April up 198 percent from a year earlier with small cars with less than 1,000 cubic centimetre engines dominating, JB Securities said.

However larger Toyota cars such as Axio hybrids were also up.

LSE Group opens new office in Sri Lankan capital

ECONOMYNEXT - London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has opened of a 30,000 square foot office in Sri Lanka, capable of housing up to 300 employees, to provide shared services, including technology, data services, and corporate support functions.

“Our new office further supports LSEG’s strategy of developing strategic operational hubs to deliver services to our global operating entities,” said Dee Liyanwela, Head of LSEG Sri Lanka.

The new office, ‘Trading House’ entrally located on Bauddaloka Mawatha, Colombo 4, is in addition to LSEG’s current 30,000 square foot space located at Trace City, Colombo 10.

Through the development of strategic operational hubs, LSEG is well placed to deliver services across the Group’s global operating entities, a statement said.

The new facility has video conference facilities and a 70-seat training centre.

Sri Lankan shares end near 5-month closing low; foreign investors buy

Reuters: Sri Lankan shares ended largely unchanged near a five-month closing low on Friday as gains led by conglomerate John Keells Holdings Plc were offset by losses in large-cap shares such as Ceylon Tobacco Company , while foreign investors turned net buyers of equities.

Foreign investors, who sold shares of John Keells, in the previous two sessions, bought the market heavyweight after lower price made it attractive, stockbrokers said.

Reports that MSCI Frontier Markets 100 Index, which captures large- and mid-cap representation across 29 frontier markets, will remove Keells from its index triggered foreign selling in the last two sessions.

Foreign investors bought net 234.6 million rupees ($1.48 million) worth of equities on Friday, but the market has seen a year-to-date net foreign outflow to 1.14 billion rupees worth of shares.

The Colombo stock index ended 0.04 percent firmer at 6,401.03, its first gain in five session. It is down 1 percent over the week.

“Keells bounced back on foreign buying. Foreign investors are looking at the market with optimism,” said Hussain Gani, deputy CEO at Softlogic Stockbrokers.

Turnover was 839.7 million rupees ($5.30 million), less than this year’s daily average of 996.4 million rupees.

A weaker rupee, political uncertainty and the recent fuel price hike also weighed on sentiment, with local investors mostly keeping to the sidelines as they gauge the real impact of the floods that killed 24 people in the island nation over the past week, brokers said..

Shares of John Keells gained 4 percent while Ceylon Tobacco Company fell 0.7 percent.

The rupee hit a fresh low of 158.80 per dollar on Friday owing to dollar demand from foreign banks and importers, but ended steady on late inflows from remittances.

Analysts said market sentiment was dented by concerns over political instability following President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to suspend parliament last month after 16 legislators from his ruling coalition defected.

On May 8, Sirisena urged his own coalition government and the opposition to end a power struggle to achieve ambitious goals including anti-corruption measures. 

($1 = 158.5500 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Vyas Mohan)