Colombo bourse slumped significantly on Friday amid the crossover of several key ruling party Politicians to the opposition. Main index lost notably by 128.71 points (-1.71%) to end at 7,401.62. 20-script S&P SL index  lost 63.67 points (1.52%) to end at 4,127.26. This was the second highest intra-day drop for the year. All Share Price Index lost 99.47 points (-1.3%) during the week while S&P SL20 index lost 28.56 points (-0.7%).

Today’s losses were mainly driven by counters such as Dialog Axiata (closed at LKR 12.90, -5.8%), Nestle Lank (closed at LKR 2,190, -2.1%), Chevron Lubricants (closed at LKR 350.00, -4.5%).

Negative movements in sectors such as Manufacturing, Telecommunications and Land & Property affected adversely to the index performance.

Daily market turnover was LKR 2.1bn. Access Engineering positioned at the top of the turnover list with LKR 281mn followed by Laugfs Gas (LKR 225mn) and John Keells Holdings (LKR 135mn). Several crossings were recorded in Laugfs Gas (4.6mn shares at LKR 45.00 per share), Access Engineering (2.3mn shares at LKR 41.00 per share) and Asiri Hospital Holdings (1mn shares at LKR 23.00 per share). The total crossings were accounted for 15% of the total market turnover.

Out of 275 counters traded, 24 advanced, 221 slipped and 30 equities remained unchanged. 5 counters reached 52wk high price levels while 12 counters touched 52wk low price levels. Cash map declined to 34% from 56%.

Shares of Access Engineering heavily traded during the session followed by People’s Leasing and Union Bank.

Most of the banking sector counters except Amana Bank declined during today’s trading session. Amana Bank closed at LKR 5.10 without a change. The declines were recorded in National Development Bank (closed at LKR 250.00, -3.6%), Hatton National Bank (closed at LKR 198.60, -2.7%), Commercial Bank (closed at LKR 173.80, -2.3%), DFCC Bank (closed at LKR 223.00, -2.2%), Sampath Bank (closed at LKR 237.00, -0.4%), Nations Trust (closed at LKR 95.00, -4%), HDFC Bank (closed at LKR 69.90, -3.3%), Union Bank (closed at LKR 26.00, -0.8%), Sanasa Development Bank (closed at LKR 91.20, -1.7%), Seylan Bank (closed at LKR 96.00, -3.1%) and Pan Asia Bank (closed at LKR 25.10, -5.3%).

Foreign investors closed as net buyers for twelve days in a row with a net inflow of LKR 358mn worth of equities. Foreign participation was 12%. Net foreign inflows were seen in Access Engineering (LKR 114mn), John Keells Holdings (LKR 86mn) and Commercial Bank (LKR 72mn) while net foreign outflow was mainly seen in Textured Jersey (LKR 10mn).

During the week, bourse witnessed net foreign inflow of LKR 1.2bn with a net foreign participation was 8%. Further Year-to-date net foreign inflow increased to LKR 19.3bn.

Access Engineering emerged as the top contributor for the weekly turnover with LKR 2.8bn followed Dialog Axiata (LKR 586mn) and Seylan Bank (LKR 453mn). Sierra Cables emerged as the top gainer for the week while PC House was the top loser.

During the week sectors such as Power & Energy (-6%), Land & Property (-5%) and Health Care (-4%) slipped while Oil Palms (+3%), Telecommunications (+2%) and Stores & Supplies (+1%) advanced.

Lanka Securities Research