Stock market mixed over normalising trading hours

Thursday, 6 April 2023 01:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Capital market stakeholders were mixed over the decision to normalise trading hours from Monday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Director General Chinthaka Mendis said having considered the representations made by the “stakeholders” the Commission at its 482nd meeting resolved to direct the CSE to go back to its regular trading hours since circumstances in which trading hours were restricted no longer prevail.

The CSE yesterday announced that from 10 April trading will be extended to 2.30 p.m. which was the case pre-COVID. At present the market closes at 1.30 p.m.

The extension or normalisation of trading hours comes amidst the lingering struggle by the market given the after effects of the political and economic crisis since April last year. Following the hike in interest rates, some investors have shifted to high yielding fixed income options as well.

As Daily FT reported on Monday, the stock market has been struggling with waning performance of indices in the first quarter. As opposed to over 4% gain in January, the indices in March reported mixed performance with the active S&P SL20 down by 4% and the benchmark ASPI up 1%. In February they were up 1% and 3.6% respectively.

Year to date, ASPI is up 8% and S&P SL20 by 1%. The average daily turnover in the first quarter has been around Rs. 1.8 billion.

In 2022 the ASPI and the S&P SL20 lost 30.6% and 37.7% respectively whilst recording an average daily turnover of Rs. 2.97 billion. However, CSE drew Rs. 30.6 billion in net foreign inflow, which was a 10 year high.