Colombo shares started the weekly operations on a negative note as All share price index lost 12.77 points or 0.17% to end at 7,403.38 while 20-script S&P SL 20 index lost 7.43 points or 0.18% to end at 4,120.87.

The losers were mainly led by counters such as DFCC Bank (closed at LKR 225.00, -1.8%), Finlays Colombo (closed at LKR 349.90, -2.8%) and Dialog Axiata (closed at LKR 12.40, -0.8%).

Negative movement in sectors such as Information Technology, Health Care and Construction & Engineering affected adversely to the market performance.

Daily Market turnover was LKR 1.9bn. Chevron Lubricants emerged as the top contributor to the market turnover with LKR 313mn, underpinned by the crossings where 0.8mn shares changed hands at LKR 342.00 per share. John Keells Holdings (LKR 232mn) and Lanka IOC (LKR 148mn) recorded next best turnovers.

Several crossings were recorded in Lanka IOC (0.9mn shares at LKR 65.00 per share), People’s Leasing (2.3mn shares at LKR 22.50 per share), John Keells Holdings (0.1mn shares at LKR 258.00 per share) and Softlogic Capital (3.0mn shares at LKR 8.50 per share). Total crossings represented 23% of the market turnover.

Losers outweighed the gainers 119 to 88 while 62 counters remained unchanged. Cash map declined to 54% from 66%. 32 counters reached 52wk high prices while 04 counters touched 52wk low price levels.

Further shares of Swisstek (Ceylon), Renuka Foods and Overseas Realty were traded heavily during the session.

Foreign investors were net buyers with a net inflow of LKR 309mn worth of equities. Foreign participation was 30%. Net foreign inflows were seen in counters such as John Keells Holdings (LKR 161mn), People’s Leasing (LKR 63mn), Lanka IOC (LKR 63mn) while net foreign outflow was mainly seen in Overseas Realty (LKR 21mn).

Lanka Securities Research