Stock Market Review – 17th Sep 2014

September, 17, 2014

Colombo stock market witnessed marginal returns on Wednesday amid notable foreign participation. Core index gained 3.10 index points or 0.04% to end at 7,179.20 while 20-scrip S&P SL index bagged 0.05 points to close at 3,976.81. Price appreciations in counters such as Lion Brewery (closed at LKR 635.00, +3.2%), Sri Lanka Telecom (closed at LKR 54.00, +1.7%) & Chevron Lubricants (closed at LKR 342.90, +3.5%) contributed favorably to the index performance.

Daily market turnover was LKR 2.2bn. Several crossings were recorded in John Keells Holdings (1.4mn shares at LKR 258.00), Royal Ceramic (1.0mn shares at LKR 120.00), Ceylon Tobacco (0.04mn shares at LKR 1,150.00) & Hemas Holdings (0.5mn shares at LKR 55.00). Aggregate value of crossings represented 25% of the turnover.

John Keells Holdings top the turnover list with LKR 479mn followed by Royal Ceramic (LKR 256mn) & Lanka IOC (LKR 136mn) respectively.

Out of 279 counters, 116 slipped, 104 advanced while 59 remained unchanged. Cash map declined to 48% from 55%. 20 counters reached 52wk high prices and one counter, Nation Lanka Finance, touched 52wk low price level.

Lanka IOC, Piramal Glass & CIC Holdings were among heavily traded counters. Subsequent to the announcement of price and tariff reductions in fuel and electricity, industrial sector counters advanced with heavy investor interest during the session.

Foreign investors were net buyers with net inflow of LKR 424mn. Foreign participation was 23%. Net foreign inflows were seen in John Keells Holdings (LKR 383mn), Commercial Credit & Finance (LKR 38mn) & Royal Ceramic (LKR 15mn) while net outflow was mainly seen in DFCC Bank (LKR 13mn).

At today’s weekly primary T-bill auction, yield on treasury bills eased further across the board. Both 3 month & 12 month yield declined by 3bps to 6.15% & 6.26% respectively. 6 month yield slipped by 4bps to 6.23%.

According to the external sector performance of July 2014, trade deficit widen by 55%YoY, due to increase in import expenditure by 29%YoY. On the other hand, export earnings increased by 11%YoY while tourism earnings increased by 34%YoY.

Lanka Securities Research