Colombo equities slumped further on Wednesday despite the drop in T-Bill yields. The core index declined to 6,973.03 with a drop of 24.90 points (-0.38%) while S&P SL 20 index lost 15.86 points or -0.40% to close at 3,961.31.

Today’s losses were mainly driven by the counters such as Ceylon Tobacco (closed at LKR 1,011.00, -2.3%), Ceylinco Insurance (closed at LKR 1,620.00, -4.7%) and John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 204.90, -0.4%).

Daily market turnover reached a nearly one month high of LKR 2bn underpinned by hefty crossings recorded in Odel where 66mn shares were transacted at LKR 22.00 per share. The crossings contributed 72% of the market turnover. Odel topped the turnover list with LKR 1.4bn followed by Ceylon Leather Products (LKR 129mn) and Nations Trust Bank (LKR 49mn).

Losers surpassed the gainers 106 to 70, while 59 counters remained unchanged. 25 counters dropped to 52wk low prices. Cash map inclined to 60% from 38%.

Shares of John Keells Holdings and its two warrants, warrant 0022 and warrant 0023 were traded heavily during the session. Both warrant 0022 and warrant 0023 declined to 52wk low prices where W0022 dropped to LKR 26.00, -11% and W0023 dropped to LKR 36.00, -7.9%. Further Access Engineering, Union Bank and FLC Holdings were among mostly traded counters.

Meanwhile foreign investors were net sellers of LKR 5mn worth of equities. The foreign participation was low at 3% which is the lowest participation since 24th December 2014. The net outflows were mainly seen in Hatton National Bank non-voting (LKR 17mn), National Development Bank (LKR 17mn) and Lanka Century Investments (LKR 3mn) while net inflow was mainly seen in Distilleries (LKR 24mn).

Meanwhile at today’s Treasury bill auction, T-Bill yields dropped notably where 12M yield declined by 19bps to 6.80% while 3M yield declined by 19bps to 6.60% and 6M yield declined by 17bps to 6.70%. CBSL offered LKR 16bn worth of Treasury bills today and the auction was oversubscribed with bids received amounting to LKR 77.5bn. It was decided to accept LKR 21.6bn.

Softlogic Holdings made an announcement to the CSE informing that the company divested approx. 66mn shares of Odel ( 24.2% stake) to Softlogic Retail (Pvt) Ltd.

According to a media release, the Supreme Court has issued today an interim order suspending the gazette notification which imposed a LKR 200mn excise tax on alcohol and beer manufactures.

Sathosa Motors announced that Mr Ajita de Zoysa, Non-Executive Independent Director and chairman of Sathosa Motors will retire from the board with effect from 31st March 2015. The company will appoint Mr. Sumal Perera as the chairman of the company with effect from 1st April 2015. Mr. Sumal Perera currently serves as the Managing Director of the company.

Lanka Securities Research