Colombo bourse closed higher on Tuesday as benchmark All-share index gained 14.31 index points or 0.23% to close at 6,186.25 and S&P SL 20 index gained 10.98 index points or 0.32% to close at 3,405.32. Progression in counters such as John Keells Holdings (closed at 238.00, +1.3%), Commercial Leasing & Finance (closed at LKR 4.00, +5.7%), Sri Lanka Telecom (closed at LKR 48.90, +1.5%) and Expolanka (closed at LKR 10.10, +6.3%) contributed favorably to the index performance.

Daily market turnover was LKR 571mn. Top contributions to the market turnover came from Union Bank (LKR 66mn), Expolanka (LKR 45mn) and Aitken Spence (LKR 42mn) respectively. No crossings were recorded during the year.

Gainers outweighed the losers 137 to 71, while 58 equities remained unchanged. Cash map marginally improved to 59% from 58%. 10 counters reached 52wk high price levels and 7 counters touched 52wk low prices.

Moreover Union Bank, The Finance Company non-voting, George Steuart Finance attracted heavy investor interest during the trading session.

Meanwhile in today’s T-bill auction, t 12-month yield remained unchanged (7.02%) while 6-month yield declined by 1bps to 6.78%. There were no sales for 3-month T-bills in today’s auction.

Foreign investors were net buyers with net inflow of LKR 48mn. Foreign participation was 23%. Foreign inflows were witnessed in counters such as Hatton National Bank (LKR 28mn), Sampath Bank (LKR 22mn) ansd John Keells Holdings (LKR 8mn) while foreign outflows was mainly seen in Aitken Spence (LKR 17mn).

Lanka Securities Research