Sri Lankan bourse recovers from 12-week low on foreign buys

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COLOMBO, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan stocks gained on Thursday, recovering from a 12-week low, as foreign investors bought market heavyweight John Keells Holdings , but many domestic investors stayed away as high interest rates weighed on sentiment.

The Colombo Stock Exchange's main index ended 0.54 percent or 28.92 points, firmer at 5,363.60, edging up from its lowest since Sept.4.

Foreign investors accounted for more than 58 percent of the day's turnover of 877.5 million rupees ($6.74 million), buying a net 461.7 million rupees worth of shares. That helped to extend the net foreign inflow this year to 35.4 billion rupees.

Daily average turnover this year is 906 million rupees.

Shares in conglomerate John Keells Holdings gained 1.24 percent to 211.70 rupees on foreign buying, dealers said.

"Foreign buying in select shares pushed turnover levels while retail investors stayed away as usual due to high interest rates," said one broker who declined to be identified.

The yield for 364-day T-bills gained for a seventh consecutive week at an auction on Wednesday, central bank data showed.

Analysts said investors have been shifting to fixed deposits from equities since the central bank kept key policy rates at three-year highs on Nov. 9.

The rupee closed at 130.24/28 to the dollar compared with Wednesday's close of 130.13/17 on seasonal importer dollar demand, dealers said.

($1 = 130.1500 Sri Lanka rupees)

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Robert Birsel)

((ranga.sirilal@thomsonreuters.com)(+94-11-232-5540)(Reuters Messaging: ranga.sirilal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
http://www.cnbc.com/id/50007026

Redbulls · 2 Market recovers Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:00 pm

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Colombo Stocks recovered on Thursday after two consecutive days of losses as all the market indices closed with positive returns. Retail investor participation also improved compare to the previous day and the daily market turnover improved to LKR 877.5mn. Off-the-floor deals from John Keells Holdings and Cargills Ceylon only accounted for 38% of the market turnover.

Benchmark All Shares Index advanced by 28.92 points (+0.54%) to close at 5,363.60 while sensitive MPI gained 32.39 index points (+0.67%) to close at 4,890.54. S&P SL 20 Index advanced by 17.39 points (+0.59%) to close at 2,952.16.

Index heavy John Keells Holdings topped the turnover list today with LKR 350.2mn followed by Cargills Ceylon (LKR 81.5mn) and Nestle Lanka (LKR 61.7mn). Retail investor favorites Free Lanka Capital Holdings, HVA Foods and Nation Lanka Finance were the heavily traded stocks during the day.

Renuka Shaw Wallace (previously known as Coco Lanka) –rights for both voting and non-voting shares commenced trading today and closed as the top two gainers. Meanwhile, Mercantile Shipping appeared as the next top gainer but on low volumes. Sathosa Motors, Agalawatthe Plantations and Maskeliya Plantations were the top losers for the day.

Tomorrow Odel rights will commence trading on CSE. The last traded price per share of Odel is LKR 20.00 which is same as the exercise price (issue price) of the Rights issue.
Foreign participation was 32% of the total turnover and foreign investors were net buyers with a net inflow of LKR 462mn. Accordingly year-to-date net foreign inflow to the Colombo equity market reached LKR 35.3bn.

Today’s cash map (excluding crossings) improved to 46% and market RSI (14 day) on All Share Index increased to 32 from the previous figure of 27. As of today, 132 stocks are trading more than 40% discount to their 52 week high prices and almost 80 stocks are in oversold position. In addition to that, 110 stocks are trading below the net assets value.
http://www.nation.lk/edition/biz-news/item/12953-market-recovers.html