Monday 18 February 2013

Quote for the day


“This company looks cheap, that company looks cheap, but the overall economy could completely screw it up. The key is to wait. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing."-  David Tepper 

LSL Market Review 18th Feb 2013


Negative implications of the West-backed human rights proceedings coupled with profit taking hit the indices in today’s trading. Although the former point was accounted for during last year’s bearish trend, further proceedings by the West has hurt Sri Lanka’s image. We witness a mixed bag of results from the December 2012 quarter although companies in specific industries which are positioned to outperform others have posted improved results. Only the textile and footwear sector gained with all other sectors losing.

ASI lost 55.67 points (-0.95%) to close at 5,774.59 and the S&P SL20 index lost 24.97 points (-0.76%) to close at 3,249.28. Turnover was Rs. 869.8Mn.

Top contributors to turnover were John Keells Holdings with Rs. 357.8Mn, Asiri Surgical with Rs. 145.5Mn and Hatton National Bank with Rs. 48.9Mn. Most active counters for the day were Touchwood Investments, Central Investments & Finance, and Richard Pieris.

Notable gainers for the day were Eden Hotel up by 2.9% to close at Rs. 36.00, Blue Diamonds up by 2.7% to close at Rs. 3.80 and Odel up by 2.2% to close at Rs. 23.00. Notable losers for the day were Ceylon Cold Stores down by 9.1% to close at Rs. 125.50, Textured Jersey down by 8.8% to close at Rs. 9.30 and Kelani Cables down by 6.0% to close at Rs. 65.50.

Cash map for today was 51.18%. Foreign participation was 72.9% of total market turnover with net foreign buying at Rs.426.2Mn.