Colombo shares managed to sustain the positive momentum to close with higher returns. Benchmark All share price index advanced by 11.39 (+0.19%) points to end at 6,083.55 and S&P SL20 index advanced by 19.26 points (+0.58%) to end at 3,345.96. Price appreciation in counters such as Lion Brewery (closed at LKR 390.00, +4.8%), Ceylinco Insurance (closed at LKR 1,439.00, +7.9%) and John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 240.00, +0.5%) contributed positively to the index performance.

Daily market turnover was LKR 1.3bn. Seylan Bank (LKR 571mn) emerged as the top contributor to the market turnover followed by Commercial Bank non-voting (LKR 93mn) and Lanka IOC (LKR 91mn). Several crossings were recorded in Seylan Bank (8.4mn shares at LKR 66.00 per share), Lanka IOC (1.5mn shares at LKR 40.00 per share), Overseas Reality (1.5mn shares at LKR 20.80 per share), Carson Cumberbatch (0.08mn shares at LKR 367.00 per share) and John Keells Holdings (0.21 shares at LKR 239.90 per share).

Gainers outweighed the losers 129 to 54, while 53 counters remained unchanged. Cash map marginally declined to 58% from 59%.

East West properties further managed to attract heavy investor interest during the day followed by Expo Lanka and Dankotuwa Porcelain. Accordingly, Sanasa Development traded heavily in today’s trading session subsequent to the dividend announcement of LKR 7.00 per share. The share closed at LKR 79.00, +7.2%.

Foreign participation accounted for 31% of market activity. Foreign investors were net buyers with a net inflow of LKR 794mn. Net foreign inflows were seen in Seylan Bank (LKR 550mn), John Keells Holdings (LKR 83mn) and Distilleries (LKR 23mn) while net outflow was mainly seen in Bukit Darah (LKR 3mn).

Meanwhile, 12.5mn voting shares and 1.0mn non-voting shares of Commercial Bank were listed today pursuant to the scrip dividend. Commercial Bank voting share closed at LKR 126.50, +1.2% while non-voting share closed at LKR 97.00, +0.8%.

Moreover, Balangoda Plantations declared a first & final dividend of LKR 1.00 per share during the trading session. The share closed at LKR 29.90 (+0.3%).  Additionally, Chevron Lubricants declared a first interim dividend of LKR 4.00 per share yesterday and closed with a gain of 0.9% at LKR 274.00 in today’s session.

Further, Nuwara Eliya Hotels made an announcement to CSE informing that Grand Hotel (Pvt) Limited was amalgamated with Nuwara Eliya Hotels on 1^st April 2014.

Meanwhile at the today’s T-bill auction, the yields of the three maturities fell by one basis point. Accordingly the 3-month, 6-month and 12-month T-bill rates declined to 6.63%, 6.80% and 7.04% respectively.

Lanka Securities Research