The slight recovery witnessed at open was not sustainable with the ASPI gliding down from its peak of 6,352.8 points (at around 9:58 am) to a low of 6,226.26 points (at around 2:17 pm) before closing at 6,239.52 points. Overall sentiments of the bourse remained inert with some hopes drawn up on the upcoming Budget announcement for 2012 as Colombo bourse YTD decline reached 6% today. The advisory committee sees no light in trading in the short term though they believe that this is an ideal time to hoard on stocks which would turnaround with the market once positive news, that can influence the activities of the investor, come up.
For the new investors waiting on the sidelines, there would be no better time than this with the market having elevated to an attractive platform of trailing 12-month PER of 14.4X with the corporate earnings release and deeper shed of the bourse. When analyzing the well-known mid-cap counters, the correction has been as steep as 20%-30% from their highs in February. The right time to accumulate would be when stocks go relatively silent and not when activity is heated up. We guide our clients to take the ‘Get Rich Slow’ path, and be less worried about falling stock prices in the short term. Making big quick money in today’s market is no longer practical. Hence, the right investment style to master right now would be to hoard on the fundamental counters and hold over a longer time horizon.
Asiri Surgical Hospitals, having made around LKR206.3 mn during 1HFY12, saw some active renewed participation today. The counter saw some 03 heavy trades taking around 3.75 mn shares each at LKR8.3 and another carrying 1.2 mn shares in the market. Hence, the counter emerged to lead the day’s turnover list with a 8.3% contribution and proved to rise as much as 5.1% to LKR8.3 but calmed down to close flat at LKR7.9. Though no crossings were registered, Dialog Axiata too witnessed five single large trades totaling to 3.5 mn shares being traded in the market at LKR8.0.
Interest continued in John Keells Holdings whilst Softlogic Holdings saw some active participation followed by Carsons Cumberbatch. Furthermore, accumulation was evident in Diesel & Motor Engineering and Ceylon Tobacco whilst Nestle Lanka closed with a gain of 0.2% to LKR871.7 after trading at a high of LKR930.0. J L Morisons saw some buying interest with both the voting (+4.02%) and non-voting (+7.49%) closing in the green after their announcement of a 1:10 subdivision on Friday.
Hotel developers disclosed that the assets of the company are vested with the Government and the shares of all shareholders of the company are now to be held by the Secretary to the Treasury. We still wait to see investor reaction as the disclosure was made after trading hours. Rating agent, Moody, had already commented on the Sri Lanka’s law of expropriation of assets of many firms, especially of the listed entities, can darken investment climate and hurt island’s credit ratings.
European stocks turn negative as Italy’s bond rise whilst the Asian stock rose with Japanese economy growth and Greek political scenario : The MSCI Emerging Market Index climbed 1.3% after losing nearly 2.4% last week. With Greek political scenario calming and with Japan’s GDP growing at an annualized 6% with 3Q2011 expanding by 1.5% and Indian inflation having slowed, the Asian stocks registered gains.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.3%, at around 10.15 am in London, with around 3 shares falling for every one that gained. Italy sold all €3 bn of the five-year notes it offered at today’s auction after a message was sent across to all bondholders on the seriousness of ending the sovereign debt crisis.
Copper led the day’s commodity market with progress of the Japanese economy to trade at around USD355 per pound (up 1.62%). Crude Oil dipped, erasing off early gains on anticipation of weak Chinese demand. Crude oil for December delivery was seen at USD98.70 per barrel in New York Mercantile Exchange at around 10:26 am in London.
by Arrenga Capital