• Staggering turnover of Rs. 185.7 b greater than 2020 last three months combined figure of Rs. 179 b
• Volume of shares and trades up sharply
• Net foreign selling remains sour point at CSE with 2021 first month recording Rs. 8.5 b

A jubilant January in terms of investor and trading activity has dwarfed Colombo Stock Exchange’s recent achievements, prompting analysts to believe momentum can only get better in coming months.

The first month of the new year saw the Colombo stock market recording an unprecedented turnover of Rs. 185.7 billion as the benchmark All Share Price Index (ASPI) and the S&PSL20 Index offering 28% and 33% return.  

The turnover of January was higher than the combined turnover of Rs. 179 billion achieved in three months of 2020 fourth quarter. The first month of 2021 also accounted for over 46% of 2020 full year turnover of Rs. 397 billion at CSE.  The 2021 January performance is also stellar considering the monthly average in 2020 and 2019 was only Rs. 3 billion. 

In terms of volume of shares and number of trades, the performance in January was unprecedented. Over 10 billion shares changed hands via 960,300 trades. In comparison just 84 million shares in January last year and 163 million in 2019. The number of trades in January of 2020 and 2019 was 19,790 and 22,854 respectively.

The sour point at CSE was rapid net foreign selling though analysts opined they can’t be blamed as they are making rightful capital gains exiting when the market was on the rise. This was evident by the fact that Sampath Bank, which rose on the share sub division move, saw Rs. 1.9 billion in net settling. JKH saw Rs. 891 million worth of exits.

Friday’s net foreign selling of Rs. 2.3 billion, highest in nine months and took the year to date figure to Rs. 8.5 billion. 

Foreign investors sold Rs. 4.57 billion net last week as opposed to Rs. 2.36 billion a week earlier. 

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