Bourse gets better; foreign inflow tops Rs. 27 b; turnover pips Rs. 1 b mark

Redbulls · 1 Colombo market buoyant as SEC chief prepares to quit Wed Aug 15, 2012 6:15 pm

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Colombo shares were buoyant on rising turnover levels on Wednesday as the tough, no-nonsense chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prepared to send his resignation later this week, brokers said.

All the indices showed significant gains while total turnover rose to Rs 1.0 billion, up 93.7 per cent from Tuesday’s level.

SEC Chairman Thilak Karunaratne has announced plans to send in his resignation on Friday, unable to withstand intensive pressure from a group of powerful investors who have complained of an over-regulated market. His departure would follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Indrani
Sugathadasa who also quit amidst similar circumstances.

The All Share Index gained 31 points to close at 4,908, the Milanka was up 66 points to 4,514 and the S&P SL up 30 points to 2,769.

Major trades were witnessed in JKH with 3.5 million shares done at turnover of Rs 700 million, DFCC (400,000 shares at a turnover of Rs 50 million) and Sampath Bank – 158.000 shares at a value of Rs 26 million.
http://sundaytimes.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23018:-colombo-market-buoyant-as-sec-chief-prepares-to-quit&catid=77:news&Itemid=563

CSE.SAS · 2 Sri Lanka stocks up as foreign investors buy Keells Wed Aug 15, 2012 6:37 pm

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Aug 15 (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan stock market rose on Wednesday for the second straight session on foreign strategic buying in market heavyweight John Keells Holdings amid a sharp decline in prices across-the-board this year.

The Colombo Stock Exchange's main index rose 0.64 percent, or 31.47 points, to end at 4,939.66, its highest since Aug. 2.

Shares in Keells gained 2.16 percent to 199 rupees a share, with foreign investors buying 2.4 million shares. Keells accounted for 68.5 percent of the day's turnover.

"A foreign fund was buying as the prices are attractive for them," said one broker, referring to Keells' gains.

The turnover of 1.04 billion Sri Lanka rupees ($7.88 million) was the highest daily amount in a fortnight, and more than this year's daily average of 868.9 million rupees.

Foreign investors bought a net 586.4 million rupees worth of shares, extending the net foreign inflow this year to 26.91 billion rupees.

Analysts said that some illiquid speculative shares also traded on small quantities on the pending resignation of the chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tilak Karunaratne, the regulator chief said on Tuesday that he would quit before Friday, after telling Reuters in an interview earlier in the week that he was under immense pressure to step down.

He accused investors under investigation for market manipulation for making false allegations against him.

Stockbrokers and dealers said Karunaratne's resignation would further dampen an underperforming bourse which has fallen 18.7 percent this year.

The rupee ended flat at 131.95/97 per dollar for a third straight session in thin trading volumes. ($1 = 131.9500 Sri Lanka rupees) (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/15/markets-srilanka-idINL4E8JF2SN20120815

Redbulls · 3 Blue chips rally bourse Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:06 pm

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By The Nation
Market continued with yesterday’s momentum with John Keells Holdings, DFCC, Commercial Bank and Sampath Bank leading the way. Towards the latter part of trading most counters were seen losing steam and closing below their intra-day peak. Meanwhile, the yield on the 1-month Treasury bill dropped 1 basis point and the 6-month and 12-month Treasury bills edged up by 4 and 5 basis points respectively.

ASI gained 31.47 points (0.64%) to 4,939.66, MPI gained 66.12 points (1.46%) to close at 4,580.15 and S&P index gained 30.94 points (1.12%) to close at 2,799.78. Turnover was Rs. 1,036.9Mn.

Top contributors to turnover were John Keells Holdings with Rs. 709.9Mn, DFCC with Rs. 49.4Mn and sampath Bank with Rs. 26.6Mn. Most active counters for the day were Swarnamahal Financial Services, HVA Foods and John Keells Holdings.

Notable gainers for the day were Harischandra Mills up by 9.8% to close at Rs. 2,525.00, Singer Sri Lanka up by 9.0% to close at Rs. 109.80 and York Arcade up by 7.5% to close at Rs. 17.20. Notable losers for the day were Blue Diamonds non-voting down by 5.6% to close at Rs. 1.70, Swarnamahal Financial Services down by 5.2% to close at Rs. 5.50 and Laxapana Batteries down by 3.3% to close at Rs. 5.90.

Foreign participation was 40.4% of total market turnover and foreigners were net buyers of Rs. 586.4Mn.
http://www.nation.lk/edition/biz-news/item/9333-blue-chips-rally-bourse.html

Redbulls · 4 Upward momentum continues, turnover tops billion: Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:56 am

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JKH the market mover of bourse yesterday

The Colombo bourse yesterday sustained the previous day’s momentum with turnover topping the billion rupee mark and all three indices up tidily – the All Share by 41.47 points (0.64%), the Milanka by 66.12 points (1.46%) and S&P by 30.94 points (1.2%) with 116 gainers outpacing 100 losers while 91 counters closed flat.

"It was quite an active day with JKH and the banking stocks moving the market," a broker said. ``JKH including four block trades of 2.65 million shares at Rs.200 and floor trades of 0.9 million shares closing Rs.3.80 up at Rs.198.60 on a trading range of Rs.194.40 to Rs.200 accounted for more than half the day’s business volume.’’

The JKH block trades were worth Rs. 530.6 million and the floor trades Rs. 179.2 million.

There was a single crossing of nearly 0.3 million DFCC at Rs.117 in a deal worth Rs.30.9 million. DFCC also saw nearly 0.16 million shares traded on the trading floor closing Rs.4 up at Rs.112.90 contributing Rs.18.6 million to turnover.

Banking stocks that moved included Sampath up Rs.3.30 to close at Rs.168 on nearly 0.2 million shares done between Rs.164 and Rs.168.90, Commercial Bank (voting) up Rs.1.70 to close at Rs.101 on over 0.2 million shares done between Rs.99.60 and Rs.105, Commercial Bank (non-voting) up 60 cents to close at Rs.79.80 on nearly 0.2 million shares done between Rs.79.50 and Rs.80.60 and Pan Asia up a rupee to close at Rs.18 on nearly 0.7 million shares done between Rs.16.80 and Rs.18.40.

Less pricey stocks traded yesterday included nearly 2.1 million Swarnamahal closing 30 cents down at Rs.5.50, over 0.8 million HVA closing 20 cents down at Rs.13.30 and nearly 1.1 million Dialog closing flat at Rs.6.

Brokers said that foreign buying was evident.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=59274

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Seemingly ignoring the doom and gloom cast by some circles over the pending ‘regulatory change,’ the Colombo stock market yesterday saw the rebound sparked on Tuesday getting stronger, with net foreign inflows topping the Rs. 27 billion mark and turnover surpassing Rs. 1 billion.

The rally as reported by the Daily FT yesterday continued with focus on blue chips, with premier corporate John Keells Holdings (JKH) leading the way as foreigners were willing to collect quantities even paying a premium.

Deals on 3.5 million JKH shares worth Rs. 710 million boosted the market’s turnover to Rs. 1.03 billion, the highest in several weeks. Among shares traded was a crossing of 2.65 million shares at Rs. 200 each in addition to another parcel of 138,700 shares done at the same price on-board. JKH closed at Rs. 199, up by 1.95% from Tuesday and 7.5% this week.

Largely on JKH, net foreign inflow swelled to Rs. 586.4 million yesterday, thereby surpassing the year-to-date figure to Rs. 27.1 billion according to Softlogic Stockbrokers.

Overall improved sentiments saw the ASI and MPI gain sharply by double digits points wise.
Whilst JKH lent near 10% support to the ASI’s gain, Commercial Bank (up 1.17%) joined the league of key contributors for the second consecutive day with a near 4% contribution, followed by Cargills (up 4.43%), Hayleys (+5.23%) and Hatton National Bank (+5.58%). DFCC was active as well with a crossing of 263,736 shares at Rs. 117 each whilst the stock closed at Rs. 112, up by Rs. 3.10. The market saw its value rise by Rs. 12 billion, though lower in comparison to Monday’s gain of Rs. 23 billion.

SEC Chairman Tilak Karunanaratne has announced his resignation, likely to be today, in frustration over lack of independence and this move has prompted some to warn that the market will dip in tandem with loss of investor confidence. Another segment of the market views the change as positive as it will usher pragmatic regulation as opposed to overregulation. In that context, it will be interesting to see whether the mini-rally since Tuesday will gather momentum or not.

Some pinned the rebound on improved investor sentiments whilst others linked it on foreigners continuing to collect stocks with attractive valuation, a hard fact which most locals have ignored.Nevertheless, two days of gain has brought the ASI’s negative return year-to-date to the below 20% mark.

Asia Wealth Management described the upturn as “unexpected” but partly attributed it “changes expected in the SEC hierarchy” and largely to a number of large trades on premier blue chip JKH.
http://www.ft.lk/2012/08/16/bourse-gets-better-foreign-inflow-tops-rs-27-b-turnover-pips-rs-1-b-mark/