Colombo bourse started the weekly activities on Wednesday after the celebrations of Sinhala and Tamil New Year and closed on an optimistic note amid unexpected policy rate cut. All Share Price index notably gained 79.97 points or 1.16% to record a 3-week high of 6,981.03 while 20-script S&P SL index gained 52.31 points (+1.35%) to end at 3,940.64.

Today’s gains were mainly fuelled by price appreciations in counters such as Commercial Bank (closed at LKR 170.00, +3.7%), John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 206.90, +1.9%) and Good Hope (closed at LKR 1,898.80, +18.6%).

Daily market turnover recorded a nearly 3-week high of LKR 980mn supported by hefty six crossings recorded in John Keells Holdings where 1.2mn shares changed hands at price range of LKR 205.00-206.00. JKH’s crossings accounted for 25% of the market turnover. Several crossings were recorded in Distilleries (0.4mn shares at LKR 240.00 per share) and Hatton National Bank non-voting (0.1mn shares at LKR 168.00 per share). Total crossings represented 37% of the market turnover.

John Keells Holdings positioned at the top of the turnover list with LKR 381mn underpinned by the negotiated deals. Dialog Axiata (LKR 111mn) and Distilleries (LKR 96mn) recorded next best contributions to the turnover.

Reflecting the positive momentum, out of 211 counters traded 149 advanced 23 declined and 39 counters remained unvaried. However cash map declined to 37% from 43%. Vidullanka and Lanka Milk Foods recorded 52wk high prices of LKR 7.70, +6.9% and LKR 149.00, +3.5% respectively while Anilana Hotels & Properties, Swadeshi Industrial Works dropped to 52wk low prices.

Shares of John Keells Holdings and its two warrants, Warrant 0022 & Warrant 0023 were among heavily traded counters for the day. Further several finance sector counters such as First Capital Holdings, Dunamis Capital and Entrust Securities attracted notable investor preference during the session. Gestetner of Ceylon rights also traded heavily on the renunciation date.

Foreign investors were net buyers for eight days in a row with a net inflow of LKR 114mn while foreign participation was 65%. Net foreign inflows were seen in Dialog Axiata (LKR 112mn), John Keells Holdings (LKR 56mn) and Hatton National Bank (LKR 3mn) while net foreign outflow was mainly seen in Seylan Bank (LKR 34mn).

Meanwhile at today’s Treasury bill auction, 12M T-Bill yield declined by 30bps to 6.60% while 3M yield declined to 6.26% by 30bps and 6M yield declined to 6.53% by 30bps. CBSL offered LKR 24.0bn worth of Treasury Bills today and the auction was oversubscribed by 3.2 times, with bids received amounting to LKR 77.1bn. It was decided to accept LKR 25.6bn.

Lanka Securities Research