Banking stock helps sustain upturn on CSE

Jan 10, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka stocks close up 0.23 percent for the fourth consecutive day with banking and property stocks gaining, brokers said.

The Colombo benchmark All Share Price Index closed 13.80 points higher at 6,083.14, up 0.23 percent. The S&P SL20 closed 22.12 points higher at 3,384.51, up 0.66 percent.

Turnover was 1.38 billion rupees, down from 1.57 billion rupees a day earlier, with stocks of 69 firms closing in the red against 123 gainers.

Chevron Lubricants closed 1.00 rupee higher at 274.50 rupees with three off market transactions totaling 492.84 million rupees contributing to 36 percent of the total turnover today.

The Finance Company closed 40 cents higher at 12.70 rupees, attracting most number of trades during the day.

Foreigners bought 579 million rupees worth shares while selling 651 million rupees of shares.

DFCC closed 8.60 rupees higher at 150.60 rupees and Asian Hotels and Properties closed 2.90 rupees higher at 67.90 rupees, contributing most to the index gain.

Commercial Leasing and Finance closed 20 cents higher at 4.20 rupees and NDB closed 7.50 rupees higher at 180.50 rupees.

Commercial Bank closed 1.30 rupees higher at 126.30 rupees and Ceylinco Insurance closed flat at 1,206.50 rupees.

Ceylon Tobacco Company closed 29.50 rupees lower at 1,190.00 rupees and Carson Cumberbatch closed 14.90 rupees lower at 355.00 rupees.

Nestle Lanka closed 40.00 rupees lower at 2,126.80 rupees and JKH closed 70 cents lower at 231.80 rupees.

JKH’s W0022 warrants closed 10 cents lower at 85.00 rupees and its W0023 warrants closed 2.10 rupees lower at 90.00 rupees.

Lion Brewery closed 6.90 rupees lower at 368.00 rupees and Cargills Ceylon closed 3.50 rupees higher at 148.00 rupees.

Distilleries closed flat at 200.00 rupees and Bukit Darah also closed flat at 620.00 rupees.

Lanka Orix Leasing Company closed 50 cents lower at 71.50 rupees and Sri Lanka Telecom closed flat at 37.10 rupees.

Aitken Spence closed 1.40 rupees higher at 106.20 rupees and Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings ended up 1.00 rupee at 70.00 rupees.
www.lbo.lk

Colombo bourse closed on the positive territory for the fourth consecutive day with indices reporting modest gains. ASI gained 13.8 points or 0.2% to close at 6,083.14 while S&P SL20 index gained 22.12 points or 0.7% to close at 3,384.51.

Joint Announcement by DFCC and NDB on potential merger
According to the joint announcement made by DFCC and NDB, the two banks are about to commence preliminary discussions with a view of achieving consolidation as announced by the Government. DFCC and NDB banks continued to attract investor interest in todays’ session. NDB closed at LKR 181.00,+4.6% while DFCC Bank closed at LKR 150.00,+5.6%.

14 stocks reached 52 week high today
Commercial Bank (LKR 126.50,+1.2%), Lanka IOC (LKR 37.00,+4.5%), E-Channeling (LKR 13.90,+5.3%), Tokyo Cement – voting (LKR 31.10,+2%), Tokyo Cement – nonvoting (LKR 27.00,+4.7%) were among the stocks that reached 52 week high during today’s session.

Further price appreciations in counter such as Asian Hotels & Properties (LKR 67.90,+4.5%) and Commercial Leasing & Co (LKR 4.20,+5.0%) contributed positively to the index performance.

Nonetheless, price depreciations were seen in blue-chips such as Ceylon Tobacco (LKR 1,190.00,-2.4%), Carson Cumberbatch (LKR 355.00,-4.0%), Nestle Lanka (LKR 2,149.00,-0.8%) and John Keells Holdings (LKR 232.00,-0.2%).

Gainers outweighed losers 148 to 59. The cash map improved to 61%.

Market turnover crossed LKR 1.0bn mark for the second consecutive day
The market turnover was LKR 1.4bn. The market activity was dominated by the bank and finance sector counters where the sector contributed 29% to the market turnover. Eight off-the-floor deals were executed today and these contributed 51% or LKR 700mn to the market turnover. The crossings were reported in Chevron Lubricants (1.8mn shares at LKR 273.80), John Keells Holdings (0.4mn shares at LKR 232.00), Richard Pieris (7.6mn shares at LKR 6.50), Laugfs Gas (0.9mn shares at LKR 30.60) and DFCC (0.2mn shares at LKR 150.00).

The highest contribution to the market turnover was from Chevron Lubricants (LKR 495mn) while John Keells Holdings (LKR 122mn) and National Development Bank (LKR 59mn) made notable contributions.

The Finance Co – voting and nonvoting shares remained as the mostly traded stocks. TFC voting share closed at LKR 12.60,+2.4% while TFC – nonvoting share closed at LKR 6.80,+13.3%. Shares of Union Bank (LKR 18.50,+3.9%), PC House (LKR 0.60,0%) and Touchwood Investments (LKR 2.70,0%) were among the mostly traded stocks of the day.


Foreign investors were net sellers after five consecutive days of net buying
Net foreign outflow from the bourse was LKR 72mn. The foreign participation accounted for 44% of the market activity. Net foreign outflows were reported in counter such as John Keells Holdings (LKR 112mn), Expo Lanka (LKR 7mn) and Commercial Bank (LKR 5mn). Net inflows were reported in counters such as NDB (LKR 12mn) and Aitken Spence Hotels (LKR 12mn).

Thanks Redbulls and Sri.
Turnover 1,384,135,382

Today is a Foreign sale day. Hope new week will start with Foreign inflow.
Foreign Purchases 579,172,294
Foreign Sales 651,210,862
Foreign Net Purchases/(Sales) -72,038,568

This is Top 50 Foreign Holdings As EOD 10/JAN/2014



Source:JBS

Thanks Kalum.

DFCC & NDB about to begin preliminary talks on merger

Heavy trading in banking stock including both NDB and DFCC where a merger is contemplated, each of which gained Rs.8 on their share prices, helped sustain the upward momentum of the bourse yesterday, brokers and analysts said.

The All Share Price Index was up 13.80 points (0.23%) while S&P SL20 gained 22.12 points (0.66%) on a turnover of Rs.1.38 billion, down from the previous day’s Rs.1.57 billion, with 148 gainers comfortably outpacing 59 losers while 114 counters closed flat.

"The market was very active yesterday with banking stock and block trades accounting for nearly Rs.700 million of the day’s turnover," a broker said. ``Not surprising with all this talk of mergers and the acquisition of a stake in Union Bank by a foreign party.’’

There was a Stock Exchange announcement jointly made by the DFCC Bank and the NDB announcing that they are about to commence preliminary discussions with a view to achieving the consolidation encouraged by the government.

However, both stressed that there had been no definite decisions on any aspect of such consolidation and that final decisions would be dependent, amongst others, on arrangements being agreed keeping paramount interest of customers, employees, (including employees of DFCC Vardhana Bank) and other stakeholders.

``Moreover, consolidation of the two entities will be dependent on the regulatory approvals and by the passage of legislation, the filing said..

Yesterday’s block trades were in Chevron, Laugfs Gas, Richard Pieris, DFCC and JKH with the highest contributions to turnover coming from Chevron and JKH.

Chevron saw 1.8 million shares done in three parcels at Rs.273.80 contributing Rs.492.8 million to turnover while JKH saw two parcels totaling over 0.4 million shares crossed at Rs.232 contributing Rs.101.3 million to turnover.

Parcels of Richard Pieris (nearly 7.6 million shares) at Rs.6.50 contributing Rs.49.2 million to turnover, over 0.9 million Laugfs at Rs.30.60 contributing Rs.28.9 million and nearly 0.2 million DFCC at Rs.150 contributing Rs.27.7 million to turnover were also concluded.

NDB led the floor trades closing Rs.8 up at Rs.181 on over 0.3 million shares traded between Rs.173 and Rs.182 contributing Rs.59 million to turnover while The Finance (non-voting) followed with nearly 8.3 million shares done between Rs.5.90 and Rs.7.10 closing 80 cents up at Rs.6.80 and contributing Rs.54.5 million to turnover.

The Finance (voting) closed 30 cents up at Rs.12.60 on over 2.5 million shares done between Rs.11.90 and Rs.13.10 contributing Rs.31.6 million to turnover.

Other banking stock active yesterday included Commercial Bank (voting) up Rs.1.50 to close at Rs.126.50 on nearly 0.3 million shares, Union Bank up 70 cents to Rs.18.50 on 1.6 million shares, NTB up Rs.1.90 to Rs.66 on over 0.4 million shares and DFCC up Rs.8 to Rs.150 on nearly 0.2 million shares.

JKH warrants W0022 closed Rs.1.10 down at Rs.84 on nearly 0.3 million and W0023 closed Rs.2.50 down at Rs.89.60 on over 0.2 million.

JKH itself closed 50 cents down at Rs. 232 on 88,967 shares while Tokyo (voting) gained 60 cents to close at Rs.31.10 on nearly 0.5 million shares.

Senkadagala Finance announced a second interim dividend of 59 cents per share for 2013/14, XD from Jan. 22 and with payment on Jan. 31.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=95634

Kumar wrote:Thanks Kalum.

WC Kumar.

Banking sector was much nejlected by local peoples. Now foreigners are collecting. I;m pretty sure foreigners will unload those on our people.

Not only banking all others they bought at lower rates during past. When market moves they will slowly release. If the upward continue they also will buy to support and release later.

Well I see many foreign buyers as investors and not short term traders. So their unloading may not happen until their target price is reached. When it does, it may be a crossing and not selling large numbers of shares in open market.

Leon wrote:Banking sector was much nejlected by local peoples. Now foreigners are collecting. I;m pretty sure foreigners will unload those on our people.

I wonder why foreigners aye for TKYO

yaka wrote:I wonder why foreigners aye for TKYO

I think, their margins increased substancially, owing to; (a) declining prices of raw materials over- seas, (b) fairly stronger SLR recently, (c) advantage of local price control for cements, and (b) booming construction industry.