Colombo equities wrapped the weekly operations on a mixed note ahead of the Sinhala & Tamil new year holidays. Bourse witnessed a lackluster trading session on Friday where All share index marginally increased by 0.03% (1.77 index points) to end at 6,901.06 while 20-scrip SP SL index shed 6.16 index points or 0.16% to close at 3,888.33.

Price appreciations in counters such as Lion Brewery (closed at LKR 624.90, +3.1%), Distilleries (closed at LKR 238.00, +1.3%) and Commercial Leasing & Finance (closed at LKR 4.20, +5.0%) contributed positively to the All Share Index performance while price declines in John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 202.50, -0.8%) and Good Hope (closed at LKR 1,601.10, -15.7%) dragged the S&P SL20 index performance to red zone.

Daily market turnover was LKR 605mn. Dialog Axiata topped the turnover list with LKR 211mn. Turnover from the counter represented 35% of the total turnover. FLC Holdings emerged as the second best contributor to the turnover underpinned by a single crossing of approx. 44mn shares at LKR 1.50.

DFCC Bank and Commercial Bank were next best contributors to the total turnover with LKR 55mn & LKR 50mn respectively. Further, several crossings were seen in Tokyo Cement (0.6mn shares at LKR 55.00) & DFCC Bank (0.2mn shares at LKR 200.00). Aggregate value of crossings represented 23% of the total turnover.

Out of 224 counters, 99 advanced, 70 slipped while 55 counters remained unchanged. Cash map slightly declined to 43% from 46%. 5 counters touched 52wk low prices while Lanka Milk Foods, Vidullanka & Ceylon Cold Stores managed to reach 52wk high prices of LKR 144.00, LKR 7.40 & LKR 300.00 respectively.

Gestetner of Ceylon rights witnessed heavy investor activity where counter advanced to LKR 27.00 during the session but close below at LKR 16.90, -2.3%. Meanwhile George Steuart Finance, John Keells Holdings warrant 0022 and People’s Leasing & Finance were among heavily traded counters.

Meanwhile FLC Joint venture Co. (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of Brown Investments has purchased 40mn shares of FLC Holdings (FLCH)at LKR 1.50 per share on 09th April 2015. Subsequent to the transaction, stake of FLC Joint venture Co. in FLCH increased to 57.6%. FLCH counter was among the mostly traded stocks today where counter declined to 52wk low of LKR 1.50 and closed higher at LKR 1.60.

Subsequent to the listing of scrip dividend shares of Sampath Bank, counter declined to LKR 244.00 but managed to close above at LKR 245.00 while Commercial Bank remained unchanged at LKR 164.00.

Foreign investors were net buyers for the seventh consecutive day with a net inflow of LKR 236mn. Foreign participation was 33%. Net foreign inflows were seen in Dialog Axiata (LKR 201mn), Commercial Bank non-voting (LKR 40mn), Ceylon Guardian Investments (LKR 18mn) while net foreign outflow was mainly seen in Aitken Spence (LKR 17mn).

During the week the main index shed 47.08 points or 0.68% while S&P SL 20 index slipped by 21.25 points or 0.54%. John Keells Holdings topped the weekly turnover list with LKR 470mn followed by Commercial Bank (LKR 365mn) & Dialog Axiata (LKR 280mn). Talawakella Plantations, Lucky Lanka Milk Processing, Gestetner were among the top gainers of the week while Multi Finance, Blue Diamonds (non-voting), Colombo Land were among the top losers of the week. Market PE decreased marginally from 13.3x to 13.2x.

Foreign investors were net buyers for the week with a net inflow of LKR 576mn. Foreign participation was 40%. Net foreign inflows were seen in John Keells Holdings (LKR 379mn), Dialog Axiata (LKR 252mn) and Commercial Bank non-voting (LKR 40mn) while net foreign outflows were mainly seen in DFCC Bank (LKR 69mn) and Seylan Bank (LKR 56mn). Subsequent to the net inflows, year-to-date net foreign inflow increased to LKR 3.6bn.

Meanwhile at the Treasury bill auction, T-Bill yields increased notably after nearly one month. 12M yield inclined by 14bps to 6.90% while 3M yield inclined by 15bps to 6.83% and 6M yield inclined by 1bp to 6.56%.

Please note Colombo Stock Exchange will be closed on Monday & Tuesday due to Sinhala & Tamil New Year Holidays.

Lanka Securities Research