Stock market’s struggle persists amidst low volume

The Colombo stock market struggled yesterday with indices down and low turnover raising fresh concerns among investors.

The active S&P SL20 declined by 0.6% and the benchmark ASPI saw a dip of 0.25%. Turnover was Rs. 415.3 million (down from Rs. 668 million the previous day) involving 17.8 million shares.

Asia Securities said the indices remained in red as investors maintained a “wait-and-see” approach, looking for signals about domestic debt restructuring.

However, the stock closed with losses (-1.3%) due to domestic selling pressure. Similarly, EXPO (-1.6%), BIL (-1.8%), LOLC (-1.1%), and ASIR (-4.7%) saw price declines during the session while GLAS (+2.6%), AAIC (+2.8%), and PACK (+1.4%) closed higher. The breadth of the market remained negative with 77 price gainers and 93 decliners.

LIOC accounted for 41% (Rs. 170 million) of total turnover.

Asia also said foreigners recorded a net inflow of Rs. 16.6 million. Net foreign buying topped in HNB.N at Rs. 9.5 million and selling topped in SEYB.N at Rs. 1.3 million.

First Capital said the Bourse extended dull sentiment, down marginally as investors continued to remain on the side-lines over rising concerns over DDR and waiting for a clear direction on the interest rates.

The Index witnessed a bullish trend during the early hours of trading and displayed significant volatility throughout the session before closing the day at 8,892, losing 22 points where blue-chip counters majorly dragged the index down further. Besides, overall activities continued to slow down as investors expected poor results from the upcoming quarterly results.

NDB Securities said high net worth and institutional investor participation remained subdued for the day whilst mixed interest was observed in Lanka IOC, Browns Investments and Dialog Axiata. Retail interest was noted in Softlogic Capital, LOLC Finance and Access Engineering.

The Energy sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to Lanka IOC) whilst the sector index lost 1.13%. The share price of Lanka IOC decreased by Rs. 2 to Rs. 151.75.

The Capital Goods sector was the second highest contributor to the market turnover whilst the sector index decreased by 0.44%.

Browns Investments, Dialog Axiata, Sampath Bank and Hatton National Bank were also included amongst the top turnover contributors. The share price of Browns Investments lost 10 cents Rs. 5.40. 

The share price of Dialog Axiata moved down 10 cents to Rs. 10.80. The share price of Sampath Bank recorded a gain of 10 cents to Rs. 51.50. The share price of Hatton National Bank appreciated by one rupee to Rs. 116.