Bourse turnover dips to third lowest

The Colombo stock market recorded the third lowest turnover for the year, with activity levels and investor interest tumbling down.

Arrenga Capital said turnover recorded was a mere Rs. 168 while volumes were moderate at 22 million. Both indices started the day on a positive note with ASPI 18 points up and MPI 22 points up, but consequently gradually lost ground to close almost flat for the day. 

The gains on index heavy illiquid counters Ceylon Tobacco and Bukit Darah kept the benchmark index in the green while the negative contributors outnumbered the positive contributors to the index by 32 counters.

“Some positive news on the treasury yields with the short term treasury bills declining by 20 basis points and recovery stories of the US economy are eye openers for equity investors. With the indices stagnant at similar levels for the past three months, we believe it is time investors to marginally increase equity allocation of their portfolios on long term growth and dividend play counters,” Arrenga Capital added.

It said yesterday some of the speculative counters managed to top the turnover list amidst a steep decline in institutional and high net worth participation.

Blue Diamonds [Non-Voting] topped the list with only Rs. 12 m turnover while 5.3 million shares were traded for the day before closing at Rs. 2.10 (-4.6%), having peaked at Rs. 2.40. PC Pharma and Amana Takaful were the next turnover generators as both ended in the green up +0.7% and 5.6% respectively.

Some buying interest was prevalent in the blue chip Carson’s despite the counter closing flat for the day. John Keells Holdings ended lower down in the turnover list amidst low volume of 33,000 shares being traded but it gained 0.8% to close at Rs. 200.1 after trading at Rs. 201 levels. JKH reached a low of Rs. 196 on Monday.