Bourse rebounds sharply

The Colombo stock market bounced back yesterday on the strength of fresh buying interest from local investors, a move widely welcomed by brokers.

Though the market saw some volatility in the first  half an hour of trading, buying interest of investors stepped securing the direction of the index which recorded a gain of 37 points.

Softlogic Stockbrokers said Ceylon Tobacco (+2.5%), Cargills (+3.6%) and Selinsing (13.3%) were the main positive contributors for the index. However the positives and negative of selected blue chips of the S&P SL20 registered a rather slow uptick with only a gain of 6 points.

SC Securities said market turnover augmented to Rs.1.31 billion on the back of off the floor trades in Hatton National Bank (HNB), CARG and Asia Siyaka Commodities (ASIY).



The other major turnover generators for the day were Distilleries (DIST) and Softlogic Holdings (SHL). The top five turnover generators accounted for 83% of the days’ total market turnover.

After two days of net inflow, foreigners were net sellers to the tune of Rs. 248.5 million.

 “The buying interest in the market is mostly gathered around the blue chip counters while speculative counters have dipped further in the recent past with most of the counters recording 52-week low prices during the last month. We continue stress to our investors to shift away from the known speculative lot to the more fundamental counters backed by earnings which are generating attractive returns even in this stagnant market,” Softlogic said.

Softlogic said the 2nd largest listed bank HNB recorded three large crossings accounting for 4.1 million shares at Rs. 149 which was a 52-week low off- board price for the counter. Onboard activity of the counter was rather weak with only 15,000 shares changing hands while the counter closed at Rs. 150.4 (+0.3%). The Non-Voting share of the counter, too, generated strong investor attention as the bullish investors pushed the counter to a new 52-week high price of Rs. 123.

Cargills, the company with the country’s largest supermarket chain supported turnover with 4 crossings accounting for 1.9 million shares dealt at Rs. 155. A further on-board block of 108,000 shares was dealt at Rs. 155 as the counter closed at Rs. 151.3 (+3.6%).

Investor play was witnessed in the diversified sector counters; Softlogic Holdings and John Keells Holdings.