Colombo equities witnessed mixed returns on Tuesday amid notable foreign investor participation. ASI marginally gained 4.23 index points (+0.06%) to close at 7,260.64 while S&P SL20 index shed 0.78 index points or 0.02% to end at 4,030.09.

Price appreciations in counters such as Sri Lanka Telecom (closed at LKR 53.00, +1.5%), Asiri Hospital Holdings (closed at LKR 23.60, +4.4%) favorably contributed core index performance while price decreases in Ceylon Tobacco (closed at 1,155.00, -1.3%), Lion Brewery (closed at LKR 620.00, -2.4%) affected the S&P SL20 index performance.

Daily market turnover was LKR 2.2bn. John Keells Holdings topped the turnover list with LKR 497mn supported by crossings of 1.74mn shares at LKR 252.00-255.00. Further, Commercial Bank & Asiri Hospital Holdings were among top contributors to the turnover with LKR 256mn & LKR 135mn respectively. Several crossings were recorded in Commercial Bank (1.38mn shares at LKR 160.00), Asiri Hospital Holdings (3.0mn shares at LKR 23.00) & Tokyo Cement non-voting (0.5mn shares at LKR 42.00). Negotiated deals represented 34% of the turnover.

Gainers outweighed the losers 120 to 94, while 68 counters remained unchanged. Cash map remained at 56%. 37 counters reached 52wk high prices and only Serendib Engineering touched 52wk low price level.

First Capital Holding, Hayleys MGT attracted heavy investor participation for the second consecutive day and both counters managed to reach 52wk high prices.

Softlogic group counters such as Softlogic Holdings, Softlogic Capital & Asiri Hospital Holdings were among heavily traded counters.

Further, trading of Kuruwita Textile Mills & Beruwala Walk Inn were halted subsequent to receiving the approval from the SEC to delist from Colombo Bourse after the completion of the share buy-back by the majority shareholder.

Foreign investors were net sellers with net outflow of LKR 305mn. Foreign participation was 33%. Foreign net outflows were seen in counters such as John Keells Holdings (LKR 391mn), Commercial Bank (LKR 80mn), Laugfs Gas non-voting (LKR 34mn) while foreign net inflow was mainly seen in Asiri Hospital Holdings (LKR 91mn).

Lanka Securities Research