Sri Lanka stocks up 0.5-pct

- corrected
Sri Lanka stocks plunge 0.5-pct
Jan 13, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka stocks plunge 0.55 percent for the fifth consecutive day with tobacco and insurance firms gaining amid net foreign buying, brokers said.

The Colombo benchmark All Share Price Index closed 33.25 points higher at 6,116.39, up 0.55 percent. The S&P SL20 closed 9.48 points higher at 3,393.99, up 0.28 percent.

Turnover was 1.37 billion rupees, down from 1.38 billion rupees last Friday, with stocks of 68 firms closing in the red against 127 gainers.

HNB closed 90 cents lower at 154.10 rupees with four off market transactions of 346.75 million rupees contributing to 25 percent of the total turnover today.

Aitken Spence closed 4.00 rupees lower at 102.20 rupees with market transactions of 154.57 million rupees contributing to 11 percent of the turnover.

The Finance Company closed 1.00 rupee higher at 13.70 rupees, attracting most number of trades during the day.

Foreigners bought 358 million rupees worth shares while selling 289 million rupees of shares.

Ceylon Tobacco Company closed 36.30 rupees higher at 1,226.30 rupees and Ceylinco Insurance closed 133.30 rupees higher at 1,339.80 rupees, contributing most to the index gain.

Hemas Holdings closed 1.80 rupees higher at 37.50 rupees and Lanka Orix Leasing Company closed 90 cents higher at 72.40 rupees.

DFCC dropped 50 cents at 150.10 rupees and NDB closed 4.30 rupees higher at 184.80 rupees.

Commercial Bank closed 40 cents higher at 126.70 rupees and Commercial Leasing and Finance ended 10 cents lower at 4.10 rupees.

Cargills Ceylon closed flat at 148.00 rupees and JKH fall 80 cents at 231.00 rupees.

JKH’s W0022 warrants closed 1.10 rupees lower at 83.90 rupees and its W0023 warrants closed flat at 90.00 rupees.

Carson Cumberbatch ended 3.50 rupees lower at 351.50 rupees and Nestle Lanka dropped 11.70 rupees at 2,115.10 rupees.

Distilleries ended 1.50 rupees higher at 201.50 rupees and Bukit Darah closed 2.10 rupees lower at 617.90 rupees.
www.lbo.lk

Plunge 0.5 ?

What bad reporting is this.

Seems like in English it means both up and down. However I agree its not the best word to use for upward movement. Also 0.5% is not really dramatic, but if it was 1% can say plunge.

May it plunge every day during 2014.

Maybe they wanted to take out the eswaha katavaha when going up.

For the english I know, plunge is usually used for dips.

Oxford dictionary says below as first entries...

Jump or dive quickly and energetically:our little daughters whooped as they plunged into the sea

Fall suddenly and uncontrollably:

Jiggysaurus wrote:May it plunge every day during 2014.

Colombo benchmark index closed on positive territory amid declining treasury yields. The ASI edged up 33.25 points or 0.6% to close at 6,116.39 – its fifth straight day of gains. The S&P SL 20 index gained 3.56 points or 0.1% to close at 3,388.07.

12m T-bill rate declined to 7.15%
The yield on T-bills declined across the maturities in today’s auction. The yield on 12m T-bill declined for the 15th consecutive week to 7.15% (-27bps) – the lowest since October 2010. The yield on 3m T-Bill declined 14bps to 6.86% while yield on 6M T-bill declined 18bps to 7.02%.

Out of the 268 actively traded counters 148 closed with gains while 63 closed with negative returns. Cashmap was at 52%. Price appreciations in blue-chips such as Ceylon Tobacco (LKR 1,230.00,+3.3%), Ceylinco Insurance (LKR 1,339.80,+11.1%), Hemas Holdings (LKR 38.90,+9.0%), Vallibel One (LKR 17.20,+4.2%) and Lanka IOC (LKR 38.90,+4.9%) contributed positively to the index performance.

Commercial Bank share closed at LKR 126.00, -0.2%. XD date of Commercial Bank’s second interim dividend of LKR 1.00 falls on next Thursday.

John Keells Holdings share closed at LKR 231.10, -0.3%.

DFCC Bank closed at LKR 150.00,-0.4% and National Development Bank closed at LKR 185.00,+2.5%. As per last Friday’s announcement, two banks are about to commence preliminary discussions with a view of achieving consolidation.

Turnover crossed LKR one billion mark for the third consecutive day
The market turnover reached LKR 1.4bn, mainly due to negotiated deals. A total of ten crossings were reported today which contributed LKR 602mn or 44% to the market turnover.

46.5mn shares of Panasian Power (at LKR 2.40), one million shares of Lanka IOC (at LKR 37.00), one million shares of Access Engineering (at LKR 21.80), 0.5mn shares of Kelani Tyres (at LKR 54.50), 0.3mn shares of John Keells Holdings (at LKR 230.50) and 2.2mn shares of Hatton National Bank (at LKR 152.00) changed hands as crossings today.

Hatton National Bank emerged as the top contributor to the turnover (LKR 368mn) followed by Aitken Spence (LKR 155mn) and Panasian Power (LKR 113mn).

Heavily traded stocks: TFC voting and non-voting
The Finance Co. voting and nonvoting continued to be the retail investor favorites. The voting share closed at LKR 13.60,+7.1% while non-voting share closed at LKR 8.10,+19.1%. Further, Laugfs Gas – nonvoting (LKR 24.40,+6.1%), Nation Lanka Finance (LKR 8.30,+6.4%) were among the heavily traded stocks of the day.

According to announcement made to CSE on 31st Oct 2013, Touchwood Investments has to complete partial payments (25%) on matured contracts by mid-Jan 2014. Touchwood Investments share closed at LKR 2.70,+0%.

In a filing to CSE, PC House mentioned that the company lawyers are communicating with the relevant parties to resolve the matter pertaining to the winding up application which was filed by a Taiwanese creditor in Oct 2013. According to the notice published on 20th Dec, the petition is directed to be heard before the court on 21st February 2014. PC House share closed at LKR 0.50,-16.7%.

Foreign investors were net buyers
Net foreign inflow to the bourse was LKR 68mn and the foreign participation accounted for 24%. Net foreign inflows were seen in counter such as HNB (LKR 277mn), Commercial Bank (LKR 23mn) and Piramal Glass (LKR 9mn) while outflows were reported in counters such as Aitken Spence (LKR 157mn) and John Keells Holdings (LKR 73mn).

The Colombo bourse will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday due to public holidays.

Jiggysaurus wrote:May it plunge every day during 2014.

Now LBO says "Stocks up 0.5-pct - Corrected". For those who did not watch the episode may think its a market correction Should have just said up or rose.

BY THARANGA SENARATNE

Jan 13, 2014 (LBT) - ASPI cruises up during mid-trading: ASPI continued its gains today and cruises up during the mid-trading session and ended on a consolidation phase in later trading hours. ASPI closed at 6,116.39 with a gain of 33 points. Gains depicted in in Ceylon Tobacco Company (+3.1%), Ceylinco Insurance (+11.1%) and Hemas Holdings (+5.0%) weighted favorably on the index performances. S&PSl20 however ended marginally positive at 3,388.07.

6 crossings adding c 43% to daily turnover: Hatton National Bank spearheaded the daily turnover supported by four off-board transactions aggregating to c.2.3mn shares at LKR152.0. On-board interest of the counter was mainly dominated by a single transaction amounting to c.95k shares at LKR154.0. HNB settled at LKR154.1 with a dip of 0.6%. Panasian Power and John Keells Holdings too denoted off-board interest where the former recorded two off-board transactions accumulating to c.47mn shares at LKR2.4 and the latter crossed a single off-board block amounting to 250k shares at LKR230.5. Lanka IOC, Kelani Tyres and Access Engineering too denoted off-board interest during trading.

On-board interest on Diversified and BFI: Aitken Spence topped the on-board turnover mainly supported by a single transaction amounting to 1.5mn shares which was picked at LKR100.0. The counter ended at LKR102.2 with a dip of 3.8%. National Development Bank further rallied today with active investor interest and ended at 52-week high price of LKR184.8 with a gain of 2.4%. Commercial Bank was also among the top on-board turnover list backed by a single trade of 76k shares at LKR123.1. COMB settled the day at LKR126.1 with a gain of 0.3%.

Retailers guide TFC to another high: Retailers further extended its speculative run on The Finance [Voting] and [Non- Voting]. Notably The Finance [Non- Voting] heavily rallied today and ended at LKR8.1 with a gain of 19%. Retail Participation was also seen in John Keells Warrants.
www.lbt.lk