Colombo shares ended with notable gains on Wednesday as All share Price index improved by 48.03 points or 0.73% to close at 6,613.84 and S&P SL20 index improved by 29.95 points or 0.81% to close at 3,706.06. The gains were mainly underpinned by price progressions in Sri Lanka Telecom (closed at LKR 51.40, +3.8%), John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 236.00, +0.6%) and Asiri Hospitals (closed at LKR 20.90, +10.6%).

Gainers outweighed losers 164 to 69, while 54 counters remained unchanged. Cash map declined to 54% from 65%. 44 equities reached 52wk high price levels.

Daily market turnover passed 2bn level today and recorded a turnover of LKR 2.9bn. Several crossings were recorded in Pan Asia Bank (27mn shares at LKR 20.00 per share), Tokyo Cement non-voting (6mn shares at LKR 32.90 per share), DFCC Bank (0.9mn shares at LKR 162.50 per share), Seylan Bank non-voting (2mn shares at LKR 43.00 per share), Hemas Holdings (1mn shares at LKR 50.00 per share) and Lanka Hospitals (0.4mn shares at LKR 50.00 per share). Aggregate value of crossings represented 36% of the market turnover.

Pan Asia Bank (LKR 550mn) emerged as the top contributor to the turnover followed by Bukit Darah (LKR 233mn) and Tokyo Cement non-voting (LKR 207mn).

Shares of PCH Holdings, HVA Foods and FLC Holdings were traded heavily during today’s session.

At the weekly primary T-bill auction held today, yield on 3 month treasury bills dropped by 1bp to 6.49%, 6 month T-bill dropped by 5bps to 6.63% and 12 month Treasury bill yield dropped by 6bps to 6.91%.

Foreign investors were net sellers with a net outflow of LKR 279mn. Foreign participation was 14% for the day. Net Foreign outflows were seen in Bukit Darah (LKR 260mn), DFCC Bank (LKR 156mn) and Lanka Hospitals (LKR 25mn) while net foreign inflow was mainly seen in Dialog Axiata (LKR 48mn).

Further, Dunamis Capital announced that the company obtained the approval from CSE to list the 10mn rated senior unsecured redeemable debt securities at LKR 100.00 each.

Lanka Securities Research