Bears return to Bourse; YTD foreign selling tops Rs. 14 b mark

The Colombo stock market saw the bear run persist for the second consecutive day with both indices dipping sharply on below average turnover. 

The All Share Price Index declined by over 94 points or 1.27% and the S&PSL20 was down by over 54 points of 1.84%. Turnover was Rs. 1.98 billion with 66.7 million shares traded. 

The market saw heavy foreign selling worth Rs. 700 million, up from Rs. 53.5 million, thereby pushing the year-to-date figure to over Rs. 14 billion to Rs. 14.2 billion. Foreigners continue to exit from Sampath Bank which saw a turnover of Rs. 623.5 million on 4 million shares. 

HNB also saw foreign selling along with Carson Cumberbatch and Hemas Holdings. On the buying side most were Dialog Axiata apart from few blocks in Ceylon Guardian, Aitken Spence, CIC and JKH.

First Capital said the Bourse continued on its downfall for the second consecutive session while continuing the Tuesday trend of being red for the fifth consecutive week. 

“Index experienced a downtrend within the first half of the session. During mid-day, market rebounded recording a short-lived uptrend and closed at 7,343 losing 95 points,” it added.

First Capital said the banking sector took over the dominance of the turnover with a contribution of 42%. Parcel trades in SAMP, HNB, LION and RCL boosted the turnover for the session amounting to 32%. 

NDB Securities said the ASPI closed in red as a result of price losses in counters such as LOLC Holdings, Distilleries and Vallibel One.

It said high net worth and institutional investor participation was remained subdued for the day. Mixed interest was observed in Sampath Bank, Haycarb and Hayleys, whilst retail interest was noted in Vallibel One, Expolanka Holdings and Dipped Products. 

The Banking sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to Sampath Bank and Hatton National Bank), whilst the sector index lost 1.15%. The share price of Sampath Bank decreased by Rs. 2 (1.28%) closing at Rs. 154.50 whilst foreign holdings decreased by 3,736,236 shares. The share price of Hatton National Bank declined by Rs. 3.25 (2.44%) to close at Rs. 129.75.

Capital Goods sector was the second highest contributor to the market turnover, whilst the sector index decreased by 1.28%.

Expolanka Holdings, Browns Investments and Dipped Products were also included amongst the top turnover contributors. The share price of Expolanka Holdings lost Rs. 1.10 (2.34%) to close at Rs. 46. Furthermore, the share price of Browns Investments moved down by Rs. 0.10 (1.75%) to close at Rs. 5.60, whilst the share price of Dipped Products recorded a loss of Rs. 2.20 (4.49%) to close at Rs. 46.80.

Capital Trust said even though the market’s recent downward trend is disappointing, it believes that the bourse will gradually reverse course in line with expectation of an upward biased long term trajectory.

“Consequently, we advise investors to take advantage of the current weakness and focus on accumulating fundamentally robust and liquid stocks in high growth sectors with a long term investment horizon,” it added.