Colombo equities market wrapped the weekly operations on a mixed note ahead of the 19th amendment to the constitution to be presented in the parliament on Monday (27th April 2015) with the support of the majority of the political parties.

Main index advanced to 7,144 mark in opening hours but failed retain the momentum where index advanced by 15.39 index points to close at 7,129.78. 20-scrip S&P SL index slightly declined by 3.06 index points or 0.08% to end at 4,023.26.

Price inclines in counters such as Commercial Credit & Finance (closed at LKR 63.50, +13.2%), Sri Lanka Telecom (closed at LKR 47.40, +1.3%) contributed positively to the core index performance while price depreciation in DFCC Bank (closed at LKR 215.00, +1.4%), People’s Leasing & Finance (closed at LKR 23.00, -1.3%) affected the negatively to the S&P SL20 index performance.

Daily market turnover was LKR 614mn. Commercial Credit & Finance emerged as the top turnover for the session with LKR 88mn underpinned by a single crossing of 0.5mn shares at LKR 59.50. Dipped Products and Citizen Development Business Finance were next best contributors to the turnover with LKR 55mn & LKR 50mn respectively. Single crossing represented 5% of the total turnover.

Out 249 counters, 135 advanced, 64 slipped while 50 counters remained unchanged. Cash map advanced to 64% from 55%. 9 counters reached 52wk high prices while 3 counters touched 52wk low price levels.

Finance companies such as Vallibel Finance and Commercial Credit and Finance heavy investor preference during the session. Both counters reached 52wk high prices of LKR 51.90 and LKR 64.50 respectively. Vallibel Finance closed at LKR 50.50 (+3.1%).

Subsequent to the positive earnings released by Chevron Lubricants, counter advanced to LKR 405.00 (+0.3%).

Softlogic Capital, Sinhaputhra Finance preference shares and PC Pharma were among most traded counters. Further, textile manufacturing companies such as Orient Garments (closed at LKR 16.40, -0.6%), Hayleys MGT (closed at LKR 19.50, -0.5%) and Textured Jersey (closed at LKR 26.80) continued the heavy trading pattern.

Both Seylan Bank and National Development Bank reached 52wk high prices of LKR 105.00 and LKR 266.00 respectively.

Foreign investors were net sellers for the day with a net foreign outflow of LKR 35mn. Foreign participation was 13%. Net foreign outflows were seen in counters such as Hatton National Bank (LKR 14mn), Sampath Bank (LKR 12mn), People’s Leasing & Finance (LKR 10mn) while net foreign inflow was mainly seen in Dipped Products (LKR 10mn).

During the week the main index bagged 43.37 points or 0.61% while S&P SL 20 index advanced by 10.70 points or 0.27%. Commercial Bank topped the weekly turnover list with LKR 502mn followed by Distilleries (LKR 421mn) & Commercial Credit & Finance (LKR 292mn).

Orient Garments, Commercial Credit & Finance, Swarnamahal Financial Services were among the top gainers of the week while PC House, SMB Leasing non-voting, Lucky Lanka Milk Processing were among the top losers of the week. Market PE marginally increased to 13.7x from 13.6x.

Foreign investors were net buyers for the week with a net inflow of LKR 271mn. Foreign participation was 43%. Net foreign inflows were seen in Commercial Credit & Finance (LKR 202mn), John Keells Holdings (LKR 100mn) and Nestle Lanka (LKR 74mn) while net foreign outflows were mainly seen in Distilleries (LKR 57mn), Hatton National Bank (LKR 39mn) and Union Bank of Colombo (LKR 35mn). Subsequent to the weekly inflows, year-to-date net foreign inflow increased to LKR 3.6bn.

Further, rupee continued to depreciate during the week where rupee against the dollar crossed LKR 135.00 mark after 20 months period.

Meanwhile at Treasury bill auction, T-Bill yields further dropped where 12M yield declined by 10bps to 6.50% while 3M yield declined by 7bps to 6.19% and 6M yield declined by 18bps to 6.35%. CBSL offered LKR 25bn worth of Treasury bills and the auction was oversubscribed by 3.7 times with bids received amounting to LKR 91.5bn. It was decided to accept LKR 34.5bn.

Lanka Securities Research