Colombo stock market wrapped weekly operations with negative returns on Friday despite fresh appointments to the key administration & economic positions, subsequent to the political turnaround in the country.

Main share index declined by 35.99 index points or 0.48% to end at 7,513.86 while 20-scrip S&P SL index declined by 17.65 index points (-0.41%) to close at 4,248.03.

Price declines in counters such as Ceylon Tobacco Company (closed at LKR 1,065, -3.2%), Lanka IOC (closed at LKR 55.00, -4.8%) & Aitken Spence (closed at LKR 110.00, -3.3%) affected index performance.

Daily market turnover was LKR 997mn. Chevron Lubricants emerged as the top contributor to the turnover with LKR 194mn underpinned by two crossings of 0.2mn shares at LKR 455.00. Distilleries & Sampath Bank were next best contributors to the turnover with LKR 123mn & LKR 108mn respectively.

Two crossings were recorded in Sampath Bank (0.2mn shares at LKR 285.00) & John Keells Holdings (0.1mn shares at LKR 241.60). Aggregate value of crossings represented 18% of the total turnover.

Out of 243 counters, 124 declined, 67 advanced while 52 counters remained unchanged. Cash map advanced to 45% from 31%. 3 counters managed to reach 52wk high prices while 9 counters touched 52wk low price levels.

Arpico Insurance started trading today subsequent to the successful IPO and the counter witnessed heavy investor participation during the session. Counter reached a high of LKR 15.00 and closed at LKR 14.30 (+19.2%). Further, Access Engineering, Lanka IOC & Union Bank were among heavily traded counters.

Most of the high cap banks such as Commercial Bank (LKR 188.50, -0.5%), Nation Development Bank (LKR 242.20, -3.0%), DFCC Bank (LKR 218.00, -2.5%) shed gains during the day. Meanwhile Hatton National Bank reached 52wk high price of LKR 212.00 and closed at LKR 211.60, +2.7%.

Foreign investors were net buyers with net inflow of LKR 121mn. Foreign participation reached 47%, which is the highest for this year so far. Net foreign inflows were seen in counters such as Chevron Lubricants, Distilleries, Access Engineering while net foreign outflow was mainly seen in Union Bank.

During the 3-day trading week the All Share index shed 91.93 points or 1.21% while S&P SL 20 index decreased by 24.47 points or 0.57%. Market activity gradually declined during the week where the volume reached year-to-date low of 26mn on Friday. Subsequent to the index depreciation, the Market PE has declined to 14.8x from 15.0x.

John Keells Holdings positioned at the top of the contribution list of the weekly turnover with LKR 642mn followed by Commercial Bank (LKR 632mn) and Distilleries (LKR 468mn).

For the week, foreign investors were net sellers with a net outflow of LKR 54mn. Weekly net foreign participation was at 44%. Weekly net foreign outflows were seen in Distilleries, Union Bank whereas net foreign inflow was mainly seen in Commercial Bank. Meanwhile year-to-date foreign outflows increased to LKR 476mn.

The newly listed Arpico Insurance emerged as the top gainer of the week while Access Engineering, Lanka IOC, Laugfs Gas non-voting were among the top losers of the week.

Lanka Securities Research