Colombo bourse managed to divert from the negative sentiments on Tuesday, after six consecutive sessions of losses amid drop in T-Bill Yields. The benchmark All Share Price index advanced 37.91 points or +0.56% to close at 6,820.34 while S&P SL 20 index gained 19.90 points (+0.52%) to end at 3,852.43.

During the month of March the core index declined by 480.95 points or -6.6% and 20-script S&P SL index declined by 263.45 points (-6.4%).

Today’s gains were mainly fuelled by price inclines in counters such as John Keells Holdings (closed at LKR 199.10, +1.5%), Ceylinco Insurance (closed at LKR 1,660.00, +7%) and Commercial Bank (closed at LKR 166.00, +2%).

Daily market turnover was LKR 666mn. National Development Bank topped the turnover list with LKR 74mn supported by the single crossing where 0.2mn shares traded at LKR 245.00 per share. The crossing accounted for 7% of the market turnover. John Keells Holdings (LKR 60mn) and Sampath Bank (LKR 42mn) recorded next best contributions to the turnover.

Reflecting the positive sentiments of the investors, the gainers surpassed the losers today 119 to 66 while 65 counters remained unchanged. Cash map slightly increased to 46% from 44%. 46 counters dropped to 52wk prices.

Shares of John Keells Holdings and its two warrants namely Warrant 0022 and Warrant 0023 continued to be the most preferred counters among investors. However all three counters touched 52wk low prices during the trading session. John Keells Holdings declined to a 52wk low price of LKR 195.00, -0.6% and managed to close higher. JKH W0022 declined to a 52wk low price of LKR 16.00, -10.6% (closed at LKR 20.90, +16.8%) while JKH W0023 declined to a 52wk low price of LKR 27.10, -9.1% (closed at LKR 32.40, +8.7%).

Further Textured Jersey, Sierra Cables, Access Engineering and Hatton National Bank non- voting were among mostly traded counters for the day. Access Engineering also dropped to a 52wk low price of LKR 18.50, -1.1% and managed to close higher at LKR 19.20, +2.7%. Additionally, both Textured Jersey and Hayleys MGT Knitting Mills advanced today to LKR 24.00, +0.4% and LKR 17.60, +1.2% respectively reacting to the positive prospects of GSP+.

Moreover, subsequent to the XD date Hatton National Bank Voting and Non-voting shares declined to LKR 222.00, -1.9% and 165.50, -6.2% respectively.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers for the seventh consecutive session with a net outflow of LKR 72mn. Foreign participation was 18%. Net foreign outflows were seen in National Development Bank (LKR 69mn), Sampath Bank (LKR 21mn) and Central Finance (LKR 13mn) while net inflow was mainly seen in John Keells Holdings (LKR 17mn). Subsequent to the continuous net foreign sales the year to date net foreign inflow declined to LKR 2.9bn.

During the month of March, Foreign investors bought LKR 1.4bn net worth of equities with a foreign participation of 27%. Market PE declined to 13.1x in March compared to 14.0x recorded in February.

Meanwhile at today’s Treasury bill auction, T-Bill yields further declined where 12M yield declined by 4bps to 6.76% while 3M yield declined by 5bps to 6.55% and 6M yield declined by 2bps to 6.68%. CBSL offered LKR 19bn worth of Treasury bills today and the auction was oversubscribed by 3.1 times, with bids received amounting to LKR 58.6bn. It was decided to accept LKR 21.5bn.

In addition Hatton National Bank announced that the directors namely, Miss D. S. C Jayawardena, Mr. R. S. Captain and Mr. D. A Cabral was reappointed at the AGM.

According to the data released by Department of census and statistics, the annual average inflation rate further dropped to 2.5% from 2.9% in February. The year-on-year change is 0.1%.

Lanka Securities Research