• Japan’s SBI Holdings returns to diversified blue chip picking up 10 m shares

The Colombo stock market has seen a net foreign inflow of Rs. 754 million so far in July with the addition of Rs. 282 million yesterday.

Foreign buying was dominant in diversified blue chip Sunshine Holdings Plc. Sunshine saw 11.1 million of its shares change hands via 728 trades for Rs. 421.6 million accounting for 56% of the day’s turnover. The price peaked to a high of Rs. 38.50 before closing at Rs. 37.50, up by Rs. 2 or 5.6%. The largest block of 8 million shares were done at Rs. 38 each.

According to Asia Securities Sunshine saw net foreign buying worth Rs. 282 million. Speculation was Japan’s SBI had returned to Sunshine collecting 10 million shares or over 2% after it exited during the quarter ended 31 December 2021. It originally held near 10% stake progressively sold down. Analysts termed the re-entry by SBI as seeing fresh value in Sunshine.

Turnover of CSE topped the Rs. 1 billion mark yesterday after low activity in recent sessions. However, indices closed marginally low.

First Capital said ASPI closed the day flat with trades taking a subdued note as investors continue to remain side-lined. “Index spiked by over 50 points within the first few minutes of trading and later plunged down on the back of profit-taking in selected counters. Subsequently as selling pressure eased, index closed down marginally at 7,627, losing 3 points,” it added.

NDB Securities said high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in Windforce and Regnis. Mixed interest was observed in Sunshine Holdings, Lanka IOC and Expolanka Holdings whilst retail interest was noted in Industrial Asphalts, Browns Investments and LOLC Finance.

 

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