Colombo bourse witnessed a lackluster trading session during the day and closed with mixed returns. ASI lost 15.64 index points (-0.26%) to closed at 5,922.23 while S&P SL20 Index gained 0.89 points (+0.03%) to end at 3,246.91. Price depreciations in counters such as Ceylon Tobacco (closed at LKR 1,021.00, -6.5%), Asiri Surgical (closed at LKR 12.20, -12.9%) and Central Finance (closed at LKR 180.10, -4.7%) contributed negatively to the market performance.

Daily market turnover was LKR 198mn. Tokyo Cement topped the turnover list with LKR 23mn followed by Haycarb (LKR 16mn) & Distilleries (LKR 15mn). No crossings were recorded during the trading day.

Bimputh Finance was heavily traded today subsequent to the announcement of right issue of shares to raise LKR 337mn to expand its micro credit, hire purchase and lease financing operations. Accordingly counter closed at LKR 50.00 down by LKR 3.90 (-7.2%).

Further Asiri Surgical, Ascot Holdings & Laugfs Gas nonvoting were among the mostly traded stocks of the day. Asiri surgical witnessed a 12.9% drop in its share price on the XD date of the interim dividend of LKR 1.56 per share.

Losers outweighed the gainers 112 to 71, while 70 counters remained unchanged. Cash map declined to 55% from 69%. During the day, 14 stocks reached 52 week low price levels while 5 stocks reached 52 week high prices.

Foreign participation for the day was 22% whilst foreign investors were net buyers with a net inflow of LKR 13mn. Net inflows were seen in stocks such as John Keells Holdings (LKR 11mn), Commercial Bank (LKR 7mn) & Aitken Spence Hotels (LKR 2mn) while net outflow was mainly seen in Haycarb (LKR 10mn).

Lanka Securities Research