Sri Lankan stocks at 1-week high on retail buying

Redbulls · 1 Sri Lankan stocks at 1-week high on retail buying Fri May 31, 2013 6:05 pm

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Indices denote marginal gains supported by S&P SL20 players
Written by Tharanga Senaratne

May 31, 2013 (LBT) - Indices continued its consolidation phase: Indices journeyed on a volatile path with the benchmark index having fluctuated between 6,446.01 (-9 points) and 6,474.72 points (+19 points) before ending with a marginal gain at 6,463.06 points. S&P SL20 players were the major positive contributors to the index with Dialog Axiata (+2.2%), Ceylon Tobacco Company (+6.5%) and Chevron Lubricants (+2.6%) topping the list. Consequently the S&P SL20 index closed up 6 points at 3,646.32 points with the latter counters trading at 52-week high levels of LKR1,000.0 and LKR332.9 respectively.

Commercial Bank spearheaded the turnover; crossings added 21%: Investor play heightened in Commercial Bank as two blocks totaling c.819k shares were crossed off at LKR125.0 during early trading. John Keells Holdings booked the second top turnover slot with notable on-board interest before it closed with a dip of 0.6% at LKR285.0. Aitken Spence added c.194k shares to the crossings board at a new 52-week high (off-board) price of LKR134.0. Interest stayed in Lanka Floortiles as it registered a block of 300k shares at LKR80.0.

Investor play in Nation Lanka Finance and C T Land and Development persisted: Retail favourite; Nation Lanka Finance continued its rally having touched LKR11.6 before closing with a further gain of 4.6% at its close. Interest stayed in C T Land and Development leading the counter to trade at a 52-week high of LKR36.0 with an on-board trade of c.996k shares at LKR32.0. Access Engineering encountered renewed interest following its earnings release today. The counter closed with a gain of 3.4% at LKR21.5. Key dividend players of the bourse; Chevron Lubricants and Ceylon Tobacco Company also saw uninterrupted investor interest.Retail activity remained steady: Retailers continued their focus in selected counters as majority of focus surrounded Laugfs Gas [Non-Voting], Nation Lanka Finance, SMB Leasing and PC House.
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sriranga · 2 Sri Lankan stocks at 1-week high on retail buying Fri May 31, 2013 6:15 pm

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COLOMBO, May 31 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares crawled higher on Friday to hit a one-week high, led by commodity and banking stocks along with retail buying in small caps, and analysts expect the index to gain further due to lower interest rates despite an overbought market.

The main stock index inched up to close 0.12 percent, or 7.94 points, firmer at 6,463.06, its highest close since May 23, Reuters data showed.

The market's 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) was still in overbought territory, at 78.832 on Friday and has been above the upper neutral level of 70 since April 16, Thomson Reuters data showed.

"Despite the overbought nature, we expect the market to rise further because the interest rates are on a falling trend after the central bank's rate cut," said a stockbroker asking not to be named. "But there is a risk of bubble forming."

The island nation's central bank unexpectedly cut its key monetary policy rates by 50 basis points on May 10 to boost economic growth in the face of subdued demand and the market interest rates have been falling since then.

The day's turnover was at 727.89 million rupees ($5.75 million), below this year's daily average of 1.05 billion rupees.

Foreign investors were net buyers of 118.5 million rupees worth of shares, extending net foreign inflows this year to 13.66 billion rupees.

The rupee ended flat at 126.45/50 per dollar on thin volumes with exporter dollar sales offsetting importer demand for greenback, dealers said.

($1 = 126.5000 Sri Lanka rupees)

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Anand Basu)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/31/markets-srilanka-idUKL3N0EC2JE20130531

sriranga · 3 Bourse gains marginally on modest turnover Fri May 31, 2013 11:59 pm

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The Colombo bourse yesterday closed marginally up on a turnover of Rs.731.7 million, down from the previous day’s Rs.2.5 billion, with the All Share Price Index gaining 7.94 points (0.12%) and S&P SL20 gaining 6.28 points (0.17%) with block trades in Commercial Bank contributing Rs.102.4 million to turnover.

Block trades in ComBank, Lanka Tiles and Aitken Spence accounted for Rs.152.5 million to turnover with JKH which closed Rs.1.90 down at Rs.285 on slightly over 0.2 million shares topping the floor trades. The counter traded yesterday between Rs.294.50 and Rs.287 with brokers saying that foreign buying had dried up.

Despite the marginal gain in the indices 142 gainers strongly outpaced 77 losers while 49 counters closed flat.

There was activity in the property sector with CT Land, Colombo Land and Ceylinco Seylan Development showing activity.

CT Land closed 70 cents up at Rs.32.50 on nearly 1.5 million while Colombo Land lost 90 cents to close at Rs.52.70 on nearly 0.7 million shares.

On the trading floor Commercial Bank closed flat at Rs.123 whereas the block trades were done at a price of Rs.125. Nearly 0.2 million ComBank (voting) was done on the floor between Rs.122.50 and Rs.123.50.

Nation Lanka Finance continued to show volume closing 60 cents up at Rs.11.50 on nearly 3.8 million shares while Laugh Gas (non-voting) closed 10 cents up at Rs.23.50 on nearly 1.3 million shares.

Among the pricey stocks, Chevron closed Rs.10.90 up at Rs.331 on 79,610 shares and Ceylon Tobacco closed 11.10 up at Rs.990 on 20,893 shares.

Central Industries announced a final dividend of Rs.3 per share for 2012/13 with dates to be notified while Sathosa Motors announced a final dividend of Rs.5 per share for 2012/13 also with dates to be notified.

On Thursday Dankotuwa Porcelain announced a final dividend of 40 cents per share, CWE a first and final dividend of Rs.3 per share, Laugf a first and final dividend of Rs.1.50 per share, Odel a final dividend of 10 cents per share, Sunshine Holdings a final dividend of 50 cents per share and Singer Finance a final dividend of 65 cents per share.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=80244