Foreigners remain bullish on Lankan listed equities with net buying but locals appear to be wary judging by the negative run at the Colombo bourse.

The active S&P SL20 declined by 1% and the benchmark ASPI by 0.6% marking a week-long bear run. Turnover however improved to Rs. 1.1 billion involving 61.3 million shares.

Foreigners recorded a net inflow of Rs. 241.6 million increasing the net inflow for the month to Rs. 907 million and year to date Rs. 1.6 billion.

Net foreign buying topped in SPEN at Rs. 167.5 million, followed by Dialog Rs. 76.6 million and CIC Holdings Rs. 6.8 million. Selling topped most in MELS at Rs. 16.3 million.

Asia Securities said the indices remained in red territory for a seventh consecutive session due to price losses in EXPO (-2.0%), BIL (-1.7%), AAIC (-4.6%), SAMP (-2.0%), and CTC (-3.4%). However, SCAP (+3.2%), SPEN (+2.3%), LOFC (+1.8%), and CTHR (+2.2%) saw price gains during the session. The breadth of the market remained negative with 48 price gainers and 129 decliners.

Turnover was led by SPEN (Rs. 171 million), and WIND (Rs. 147 million). Crossings accounted for 19.8% of turnover with 2 crossings recorded in WINDN (Rs. 142.7 million), 1 crossing each in TJL (Rs. 29.9 million), MELS (Rs. 27.3 million) and RILN (Rs. 27 million).

First Capital said continuing from a sluggish performance during the previous day the market showed a downward trend as it commenced but recovered towards midday as the large caps including SPEN alongside some selected banks aided the index to close higher at 9,125.

Moreover, after almost a week of low investor interaction the turnover crossed Rs. 1 billion mark though 6.3% lower than the monthly average of Rs. 1.2 billion aided by multiple offboard transactions.

Amongst crossings, multiple off-board transactions on WIND was witnessed totaling 8.2 million shares transacted at Rs. 17.5. Furthermore, ahead of today’s bill auction and on concerns related to DDR, selling pressure emerged on the treasury shares during today’s session.

NDB Securities said high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in Windforce Ltd., Teejay Lanka and Melstacorp. Mixed interest was observed in Dialog Axiata, Expolanka Holdings and Capital Alliance whilst retail interest was noted in Browns Investments, Industrial Asphalts and Blue Diamonds Jewellery Worldwide.

The Capital Goods sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to Aitken Spence) whilst the sector index lost 0.56%. The share price of Aitken Spence increased by Rs. 3 to Rs. 135.

The Food, Beverage & Tobacco sector was the second highest contributor to the market turnover whilst the sector index decreased by 0.73%.

Windforce Ltd., Dialog Axiata, Capital Alliance and Expolanka Holdings were also included amongst the top turnover contributors. The share price of Windforce Ltd., closed flat at Rs. 16.50. The share price of Dialog Axiata closed flat at Rs. 11. The share price of Capital Alliance recorded a loss of 60 cents to Rs. 29.70. The share price of Expolanka Holdings declined by Rs. 3.25 to Rs. 159.25.

CSE enables issue of Green Bonds by Sri Lankan companies