Stock market opens fresh week on dull note, low turnover

Tuesday, 11 March 2025 02:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Colombo stock market yesterday began a fresh week on a dull note with indices moving down amidst low turnover.

The benchmark ASPI declined by 0.71% and the active S&P SL20 by 0.69%. Turnover was Rs. 824.57 million involving 29.5 million shares.

Despite retail activity remaining flat foreign investors emerged as net buyers with an inflow of Rs. 16.18 million.

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Asia Securities said the indices closed in red yesterday with the ASPI losing 115 points (-0.7%) and the S&P SL20 index decreasing 33 points (-0.7%), primarily led by banks. Notable price declines in HNBN (-1.0%), COMBN (-0.7%), NTBN (-0.5%), and SAMP (-0.4%) were recorded during the session. Moreover, CICN (-2.7%), CFIN (-1.5%), HAYL (-1.4%), and BIL (-1.3%) closed in the red, leading to a broad-based decline during the session. Turnover was led by SAMP (Rs. 56 million), NTBN (Rs. 53 million), and UAL (Rs. 47 million). HNBN (-9 points), MELS (-6 points), and HAYL (-6 points) were the major laggards of the index for the day. The market breadth was negative with 40 price gainers and 146 decliners.

First Capital said the bourse started off on a mildly positive note before negative sentiment kicked in, causing the ASPI to decline, falling 115 points to close at 16,001. The top negative contributors to the index were LLUB, SAMP, LOLC, COMB and DFCC. HNW participation was entirely absent, with no crossings reported in yesterday’s trading session. Retail investors had a quiet session as well, with low levels of buy sentiment in the market. Banking and blue-chip counters were the primary drivers of today’s overall decline. The turnover stood at Rs. 824.6 million, marking a 72.8% decrease from the monthly average.

The Banking sector was the most significant contributor to the overall turnover with a 25% share, followed by the Capital Goods, and Food, Beverage and Tobacco sectors jointly contributing 29%.

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