Colombo stock market dips to six month low

The Colombo stock market yesterday ended the week down 1.7% slumping to a six month low as investor sentiment remained depressed over prospects for listed equities. 

The benchmark ASPI suffered a loss of 1.7% with the index at 10,433, a 6 month low whilst the active S&P SL20 dipped sharply by 2.4%. In the previous week ASPI and the S&P SL20 lost 1.4% and 2.3% respectively. So far in January, the ASPI is down by 2.1% and S&P SL20 by 3.8%.

Average daily turnover for the week was Rs. 850 million, an improvement in comparison to Rs. 610 million last week.

Asia Securities said following a positive opening to the session, the market turned negative due to price losses in CALT (-1.0%), MELS (-3.1%), DIST (-1.9%), and CTC (-1.9%). After a gap-down of 21 points to 10,440, the ASPI recovered to 10,482 (+21 points) in the first hour of trading. Nevertheless, the index reversed course, staying in the red for the rest of the session to close at 10,433 (-28 points). However, investor buying interest was observed in LLUB, GLAS, DFCC, TKYOX, LMF, ALUM, and MGT during the session. The breadth of the market was negative with 66 price gainers and 77 decliners. 

Turnover yesterday was Rs. 519 million led by LIOC (Rs. 110 million) and JKH (Rs. 75 million).

Asia also said foreigners recorded a net outflow of Rs. 85.6 million increasing the year to date figure to over Rs. 1.5 billion. 

Net foreign buying yesterday topped in TKYO.X at Rs. 7.7 million and selling topped in JKH at Rs. 64.9 million. First Capital said the bourse closed in the red zone once again, continuing in its downward spiral for the 9th consecutive session. ASPI was up at the start of the session but continued on a downward trend as selling pressure emerged on the blue-chip counter such as MELS and CTC that resulted with the index closing the day at 10,433, a 6 month low. The banking sector counters performed relatively better as compared to the last previous sessions with counters such as DFCC and NDB enticing stronger buying interest. Turnover was 54% less than the month’s daily average of Rs. 1.1 billion. 

NDB Securities said high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in John Keells Holdings, Chevron Lubricants, and Cargills Bank. Mixed interest was observed in Lanka IOC, Melstacorp and Expolanka Holdings whilst retail interest was noted in Browns Investments, Lanka Credit and Business Finance and Marawila Resorts. 

The Energy sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to Lanka IOC) whilst the sector index lost 0.19%. The share price of Lanka IOC decreased by 20 cents to Rs. 98.20.

The Capital Goods sector was the second highest contributor to the market turnover (due to John Keells Holdings) whilst the sector index edged down by 0.11%. The share price of John Keells Holdings lost 25 cents to Rs. 183.50.

Cargills Bank, Chevron Lubricants, and Melstacorp were also included amongst the top turnover contributors. The share price of Cargills Bank closed flat at Rs. 7.80. The share price of Chevron Lubricants closed flat at Rs. 93.50. The share price of Melstacorp declined by Rs. 2.60 to Rs. 81.10.