Bourse rebounds on foreign buying

The downturn witnessed in the Colombo Bourse during the last few days came to a halt with the three main market indices gaining considerable ground yesterday according to SC Securities.

The benchmark index , the All Share Price Index (ASPI) rose by 0.69% (37.78 points) over Thursday’s  close to end the week at 5,532.32 points, whilst the Milanka Price Index (MPI) gained 1.1% (55.07 points) to end at 5,071.35 points. The S&P SL 20 Index witnessed an upside of 0.8% (23.80 points) over ending the day at 2,997.95 points.

Market turnover augmented to Rs. 1,305.25 million with the help of few high value block trades witnessed during the day.

“Block trades were seen in John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH), Environmental Resources Investments PLC voting, Warrant 3 and Warrant 6 shares & Ceylon Beverage Holdings PLC (BREW).



 These counters accounted for 89% of the total market turnover,” SC Securities added.

JKH witnessed three off the market trades at uniform price of Rs. 210.00. A volume of 2.68 million shares traded generating a turnover of Rs. 564.73 million through the crossings. JKH ended the day at Rs. 209.70, climbing by 1.55% (Rs. 3.20) over Thursday’s close.

Environmental Resources Investments PLC witnessed three block trades during the day in its voting shares, warrant 3 and 6. GREG.N, GREG.W6 and GREG.W3 generated turnover of Rs. 349.29 million, Rs. 115 million and Rs. 105.81 million respectively. GREG.N witnessed a rise in price of 3.38% before ending the day at Rs. 15.30, while the warrants 6 and 3 witnessed a decline of 4% and 2.17% respectively.

SC Securities also said BREW witnessed a solitary off the market trade of 48,000 shares at a price of Rs. 440. The counter generated a turnover of Rs. 21.59 million. BREW traded at a low of Rs. 420 and a high of Rs. 430 before ending the day at Rs. 421, edging upwards by 5.20% (Rs. 20.80) over the previous close.

Foreigners ended the day as net buyers with foreign purchases worth of Rs. 1,165.34 million against foreign sales worth of Rs. 582 million resulting in a net inflow of Rs. 583.32 million.