Negative start in new week at CSE

The Colombo stock market began a fresh week on a negative note amidst lacklustre investor activity as macro factors dampened sentiment. 

The ASPI dipped by 0.6% and S&P SL20 by 0.1% whilst turnover was Rs. 822 million involving 38.5 million shares.

Asia Securities said following a sharp decline, the indices recovered partially at the tail end of the session supported by price gains in VONE (+11.6%), LIOC (+4.9%), LOFC (+1.5%), and AAIC (+1.8%). Activity continued at lower levels with turnover coming in below Rs. 1 billion, led by EXPO (Rs. 207 million), LIOC (Rs. 66 million) and BIL (Rs. 64 million). 

Earlier, the ASPI touched an intra-day low of 7,356 (-116 points) dragged by price losses in JKH (-0.8%), LOLC (-0.8%), DIAL (-1.0%) and SAMP (-0.6%). However, the index pared early losses to some extent as the session progressed on the back of bargain buying from retail and HNI investors. However, the indices eventually closed lower, extending their decline for the fifth consecutive session with the ASPI declining 48 points and the S&P SL20 index declining 4 points. Overall, 43 stocks recorded price gains during the session while 128 settled with losses.

Asia also said foreigners recorded a net outflow of Rs. 40 million while their participation increased to 5.4% of turnover (previous day 4.3%). Net foreign buying topped in MELS at Rs. 2.2 million and selling topped in DIAL at Rs. 26.7 million.

First Capital said the Bourse recorded another day of selling and closed in red, losing 48 points during today’s trading session. This is the 5th straight loss the bourse made and have resulted in losing more than 474 points in total. 

“The poor sentiment prevailed today and during the past few days was mainly as a result of growing concerns regarding food and fuel shortages in the country and the implications that this will bring on to the economy and company earnings,” First Capital said. 

It said the Index opened on a negative note and witnessed heavy selling during the first hour losing more than 100 points. However, with the arrival of the IMF team and optimism with regards to progress of staff level discussions, the market partly recovered its losses and saw a volatile session of trading as slight buying interest was visible on selected blue-chip stocks. 

Market was driven predominantly by the retail investors and poor turnover was led by a joint contribution of 42% from Transportation and Capital Goods sectors.