Selling pressure by locals bring Bourse down

COLOMBO, April 1 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan stocks fell for the fourth straight session on Monday to hit a more than two-week low as upward pressure on interest rates kept many investors on the sidelines, while the rupee ended firmer on remittances.

The main index finished 0.53 percent, or 30.48 points weaker at 5,705.20, its lowest March 15.

'Interest rates are still high. They need to come off for retailers to get activated,' said a stockbroker on condition of anonymity.

Yields on T-bills rose for the fourth straight week at a March 25 auction even though the central bank had kept its key policy rates unchanged for a third month in a row.,

However, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal on Monday told Reuters that market interest rates will ease this year as the monetary authority maintains a loose monetary policy stance.

Turnover was 403.2 million rupees ($3.18 million), less than half of this year's daily average of 1 billion rupees.

Foreign investors were net buyers of 6 million rupees worth of shares extending the year-to-date net foreign inflow to 4.98 billion rupees worth of shares.

The rupee gained to 126.30/35 to the dollar, from Thursday's close of 126.80/85, due to inflows from inward remittances, dealers said.

Both the stock and money markets were closed for a holiday on Friday.

($1 = 126.7500 Sri Lanka rupees)

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Kim Coghill)

(ranga.sirilal@thomsonreuters.com)(+94-11-232-5540)

(Reuters Messaging: ranga.sirilal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)(twitter.com/rangab a)
http://www.xe.com/news/2013/04/01/3282801.htm

WRITTEN BY THARANGA SENARATNE

Apr 01, 2013 (LBT) - The All Share Price Index lost 30.48 points to close at 5,705.2 (-0.5%) while the S&P SL20 Index lost 11.9 points to close at 3,281.6 (-0.4%). Total turnover for the day stood at LKR403.2 mn (USD3,178.5 k) vs. 12-month average daily turnover of LKR825.21 mn (USD6,505.5 k), whilst the volume traded for the day was 15,301 k against the 12-month average daily volume of 38,659 k.

Top contributory counters towards the turnover for the day were Sampath Bank LKR148.3 mn (USD1,168.7 k, 0.04%), National Development Bank LKR27.7 mn (USD218.2 k, 1.5%), Asian Hotels & Properties LKR27.3 mn (USD215.5 k, -0.4%) , Hatton National Bank (Non Voting) LKR25.4 mn (USD200.5 k, -5.9%) Hatton National Bank LKR21.2 mn (USD167.3 k, -4.4%) Bourse entered the month of April with a negative note where both ASI and S&P SL 20 witnessed a dreary momentum to close in the red. Sampath Bank led the turnover today supported by a crossing where 500K shares were exchanged at a price of LKR224.0. Counter contributed a circa of 37% to the daily turnover to close at LKR225.0 with a marginal price gain of 0.04%. National Development Bank also enticed institutional interest and managed to preserve the second place in the top turnover calibre. The counter reached its 52 week high of LKR168.50 whilst it closed the day at LKR167.40. Apart from the above both Commercial Bank and Hatton National Bank commenced trading today XD, which presumably dragged down the prices of both counters and also the indices. Foreign purchases amounted to LKR79.9 mn (USD630.1 k), whilst foreign sales amounted to LKR19.9 mn (USD156.9 K). This resulted in a net foreign inflow of LKR60.0 mn being recorded at the end of the day’s trading. Market capitalization stood at LKR2,188.3 bn. YTD performance is 1.1%.
http://lbt.lk/stock-market/movement/4043-total-turnover-for-the-day-stood-at-lkr4032-mn-

The Colombo bourse opened the week yesterday on a quite note with both indices closing in the red with turnover falling to Rs. 403.2 million.

The All Share Price Index fell 0.53 percent, down 30.48 points to 5,705.20 while the S&P SL20 closed 0.36 percent, down 11.94 points to 3,281.63 with little more than 15.3 million shares changing hands during the day.

Foreign purchases amounted to Rs. 79.9 million, resulting in a net inflow of Rs. 60 million.

Sampath Bank featured in an off market transaction involving 500,000 shares at Rs. 224 each.

PC House PLC announced a one for two rights issue offering 114,446,667 shares at Rs. 3 each while Chilaw Finance announced a one for seven rights issue offering 4,237,667 shares at Rs. 10 each.

"Losers outpaced gainers with Ceylon Leather(W0013), Ceylon Leather(W0014) and Lake House Printers declining by 27.3%, 12.5% and 10.4% and offsetting advances in On’ally Holdings, Ceylon Hospitals and Hunters & Co. which rose by 21.9%, 11.3% and 8.0% respectively," DNH Financial said.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=76013

Selling pressure figured as a key reason for the Colombo stock market to close negative yesterday, according to Softlogic Stockbrokers.

It said the benchmark index trended downwards (dip of 30 points) on a rather dull market where activity seems to be drying up due to the upcoming New Year holidays in mid-April. Yesterday’s dip brought the year to date gain of ASI to 1.1% whilst the S&P SL 20 Index has performed well with a positive return of 6.4%.

Lanka Securities said indices dropped led by retail heavy counters. “A sense of profit taking and cautious investing by retailers determined sentiment. With this slight downturn we should expect plenty of bargains ahead,” it said adding Nestle gathered steam with investors expecting a final dividend.

NDB Stockbrokers said the market commenced the week on a negative note amidst subdued participation from high net worth, institutional and foreign investors.

“Banking sector contributed to 69% of the day’s turnover mainly owing to the interest in Sampath Bank, National Development Bank and Hatton National Bank,” NDBS added.

Softlogic said one crossing in Sampath Bank managed to boost turnover to Rs. 403 million and contributing 28% to turnover.

The dip in value in Hatton National Bank, Sri Lanka Telecom, Commercial Leasing and Commercial Bank weighted negatively on the index.

Sampath Bank led the turnover with the sole crossing for the day of 500k share dealt at Rs. 224. On-board trading remained strong with 161,000 shares trading as the counter finally closed at Rs. 225.6 (+0.3%).

Interest in National Development Bank persisted with the counter renewing its 52-week high price of Rs. 168.5. Following the XD date heavy selling pressure was observed in Hatton National Bank [Voting] and its [Non-Voting] where both counters dipped 4.2% and 6.1% to close at Rs. 160.2 and 123.8 respectively.

Softlogic also said interest in big caps continued yesterday as investor interest was noted in John Keells Holdings and its subsidiary Asian Hotels and Properties though on a smaller scale in relation to previous days.

The former dipped in value to close at Rs. 246.5 (-0.2%). The latter, however recorded a few mid-sized blocks onboard at a similar price of Rs. 70 while the counter closed flat for the day.

The dull retail segment saw some activity with selected retail favorite counters led by Janashakthi Insurance, Free Lanka Capital Holdings, Colombo Land generating some investor attention.

Foreigners remained bullish with a net inflow of Rs. 60 million, bringing the year to date figure to Rs. 4.8 billion.

DNH Financial said with 1Q2013 having come to an end, it expects the market to trade range bound until the corporate results season kicks in during the next several weeks where a break to the upside.

“In order to benefit fully however, we believe that it is important for investors to focus on companies that have high but sustainable top line growth with less sales volatility. We further accentuate the need to select those companies with significant free cashflow generation and are relatively underleveraged even despite our expectation of a decline in interest rates,” DNH said.

“With regard to sector exposure, we continue to re-iterate the need to focus on stocks that will benefit from robust domestic consumption cycle and who will be able to sustain earnings growth due their dominant market share, pricing power and economies of scale. Consequently, we favour high growth counters in the food and beverage, hotels, diversified and banking (selectively) sectors while portfolio investment into the industrial sector should be made on a selective basis,” DNH added.
http://www.ft.lk/2013/04/02/selling-pressure-by-locals-bring-bourse-down/