Stock Market Review

April, 1, 2014

Colombo bourse regained lost ground on Tuesday as the ASI closed at 6,001.83, up by 33.52 index points (+0.56%) while 20-script S&P SL index closed at 3,299.90, up by 19.98 index points or 0.61%. The gains in the index were led by price appreciations in blue chips such as John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 233.00, +2.6%), Ceylon Tobacco (closed at LKR 1,075.00, +1.8%) and DFCC Bank (closed at LKR 150.00, +4.2%).

Daily market turnover was LKR 341mn. Shalimar (LKR 117mn) topped the turnover list with a single off the floor deal of approx. 0.1mn shares at LKR 1,400.00, followed by John Keells Holdings (LKR 40mn) & Sampath Bank (LKR 24mn).

Moreover John Keells Holdings main share and two warrants (warrant 22 & 23) attracted heavy investor participation. Further Sampath Bank, Commercial Bank and Seylan Bank recorded a drop in its share prices 3.4%, 4.6% & 3.6% respectively on the XD date of final dividend.

Gainers outweighed the losers 107 to 66, while 61 counters unvaried during the trading session. Cash map improved to 65% from 59%. 12 stocks reached 52wk low prices and 2 counters managed to touch 52wk high price levels.

Foreign investors were net buyers with an inflow of LKR 181mn. Foreign participation was 32% for the day. Net inflows were seen counters such as Shalimar (LKR 116mn), John Keells Holdings (LKR 25mn), Commercial Bank (LKR 22mn) while net outflow was mainly seen in John Keells Holdings warrant 23 (LKR 3mn).

Lanka Securities Research