Colombo bourse advanced for the third consecutive session on Thursday driven by retail activity. All share index touched 7,083 mark in the opening hours but failed to retain the optimistic momentum. Nevertheless, benchmark index bagged 13.18 index points or 0.19% to end at 7,068.85 while S&P SL20 index gained 10.24 index points (+0.27%) to close at 3,819.07.

The gains were mainly driven by price appreciations in counters such as John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 175.00, +2.0%), Cargills (Ceylon) (closed at LKR 180.00, +9.7%) and Dialog Axiata (closed at LKR 11.50, +0.9%).

Daily market turnover was LKR 779mn. Distilleries emerged as the top contributor to the turnover with LKR 69mn) followed by Overseas Realty (LKR 61mn), Bairaha Farms (LKR 57mn) and Richard Pieris (LKR 55mn). No crossings were recorded during the trading session.

Market breadth was equally divided where out of 265 counters, 105 advanced, 103 slipped while 57 remained unchanged. Cash map jumped from 43% to 55%. 5 counters managed to reach 52wk high prices while 20 counters touched 52wk low price levels.

John Keells Holdings regained investor attention where both voting share and warrant 0023 closed with positive gains. Warrant 0023 counter advanced to LKR 36.10 but closed lower at LKR 35.50 (+3.2%). Meanwhile, several relatively illiquid scripts namely Bogala Graphite (LKR 41.90), Richard Pieris Exports (LKR 315.00), Arpico Finance (LKR 245.00), Hayleys Fibre (LKR 89.00) and Lanka Aluminium (LKR 128.50) advanced to 52wk high price levels.

Following the positive interim results, stocks of Union Bank and Ceylon Cold Stores ended the session on high note. Union Bank posted 51%YoY profit growth for the September quarter while Ceylon Cold Stores net earnings increased by 129%YoY. Union Bank stock closed at LKR 22.20 (+2.8%) while Ceylon Cold Stores closed at LKR 391.00, (+1.0%).

Further, high volumes were witnessed in Overseas Realty as bargain hunters entered to the counter. Counter advanced to LKR 22.50 but remained unchanged at LKR 22.00.

Foreign investors were net buyers with a marginal net foreign inflow of LKR 3mn. Foreign participation was 17%. Net foreign inflows were seen in Hemas Holdings (LKR 12mn), Bairaha Farms (LKR 10mn), Overseas Realty (LKR 6mn) while net foreign outflow was mainly seen in Ceylon Grain Elevators (LKR 12mn).

Lanka Securities Research