Colombo equities closed with mixed results on Thursday amid marginal net foreign outflow. ASI declined by 9.93 index points or 0.13% to end at 7,386.08 while 20 scrip S&P SL index marginally gained by 0.71 index points or 0.02% to end at 4,151.35.

Price depreciations in counters such as Ceylon Tobacco (closed at LKR 1,150.00, -0.9%) & John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 251.90, -0.5%) affected negatively to the ASI performance while price inclines in Commercial Bank (closed at LKR 169.20, +1.3%) & Hayleys (closed at LKR 358.00, +5.3%) contributed favorably to the S&P SL20 index performance.

Daily market turnover was LKR 1.5bn. Several crossings were recorded in Hemas Holdings (1.8mn shares at LKR 61.50), Kelsey Developments (1.8mn shares at LKR 40.00), Commercial Bank (0.4mn shares at LKR 168.00) & Sampath Bank (0.2mn shares at LKR 250.00). Aggregate value of crossings represented 20% of the total turnover.

John Keells Holdings topped the turnover list with LKR 265mn followed by Hemas Holdings (LKR 123mn) & Access Engineering (LKR 112mn).

Out of 285 counters, 132 declined, 97 inclined & 56 remained unchanged. Cash map increased to 55% from 42%. 25 counters reached 52wk high prices while 3 counters touched 52wk low price levels.

Access Engineering, Singer Industries & Lanka IOC were among heavily traded counters and all three counters reached 52wk high price levels of LKR 33.00, LKR 217.00 & LKR 49.40 respectively.

Ceylon & Foreign Trades declared interim dividend of LKR 0.05 per share & counter closed at LKR 8.30, (-1.2%).

Foreign investors were net sellers with net outflow of LKR 8mn. Foreign participation was 23%. Net foreign outflows were seen in John Keells Holdings (LKR 203mn), Hatton National Bank non-voting (LKR 21mn), Citizen Development Business Finance (LKR 18mn) while net foreign inflow was mainly seen in Hemas Holdings (LKR 113mn).

Lanka Securities Research