Colombo bourse ended modestly lower on Wednesday as investors practice the wait and watch approach amid the unsettled political situation and profit taking. There was a little sideway force in the market as the market opened with positive returns but closed in the negative zone. All share price index marginally declined to 7,063.45 with a drop of 3.66 index points or -0.05% while S&P SL 20 index slightly lost 1.44 points (-0.04%) to end at 3,914.41.

The losses were mainly driven by price depreciations in counters such as Lanka Orix Leasing Company (closed at LKR 100.50, -3.4%), Sri Lanka Telecom (closed at LKR 45.00, -2.8%) and John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 190.50, -0.5%).

Daily market turnover was LKR 364mn. Sampath Bank emerged as the top contributor to the market turnover underpinned by the single negotiated deal where approximately 0.2mn shares changed hands at LKR 258.00 per share. The crossing accounted for 14% of the market turnover.

Further John Keells Holdings (LKR 35mn), Sinhaputhra Finance preference shares (LKR 22mn) and Alufab (LKR 21mn) recorded next best contributions to the turnover.

Ceylon Tobacco Company further declined during today’s trading session recording a 52wk low price of LKR 910.00, -1.6% but managed to closed at LKR 920.00, -0.5%.

Meanwhile Nations Lanka Finance dropped by 10% to LKR 3.60 today subsequent to the announcement of negative corporate earnings. The company reported a loss of 132mn, -22.7%YoY for the quarter.

Out of 236 counters traded, 98 advanced 76 slipped while 62 counters remained unchanged. Cash map improved to 58% from 47%. 9 counters declined to 52wk low prices while Serendib Land (LKR 1,380.00), Hunters & Company (LKR 450.00) and Alufab (LKR 57.50) recorded 52wk high prices.

Moreover shares of Sinhaputhra Finance preference shares, City Housing & Real Estate and Alufab were among mostly traded counters for the session.

Foreign investors turned to be net buyers with a net foreign inflow of LKR 60mn. Foreign participation was 17%. Net foreign inflows were mainly seen in Sampath Bank (LKR 43mn), Tokyo Cement non-voting (LKR 9mn) and Kelani Cables (LKR 4mn) while net foreign outflow was mainly seen in Pan Asia Bank (LKR 4mn).

Meanwhile at today’s Treasury bill auction, yield of 3M T-bill surprisingly inclined after 9-weeks to 6.08% while 6M and 12M yields remained unchanged at 6.18% and 6.29% respectively. CBSL offered LKR 22bn worth of Treasury bills today and the auction was oversubscribed by 2.4 times with bids received amounting to LKR 52bn. It was decided to accept LKR 26bn.

Please note that EAP Broadcasting Company debenture issue will not be open for subscriptions on 11th June 2015 (tomorrow) due to the directive issued by the SEC.

Lanka Securities Research