Thursday 21 February 2013

Quote for the day


"Human emotion is both the source of opportunity in trading and the greatest challenge. Master it and you will succeed. Ignore it at your peril." -  Richard Dennis 

LSL Market Review 21st Feb 2013


John Keells Holdings was the bright light in a sluggish market as it helped to minimize the losses on the indices. It reached a 52-week high of Rs. 235.30 with a block trade done at Rs. 235.00 whilst also contributing around 68% of the turnover. Today’s price appreciation was driven by foreign interest. Banking stalwart Sampath Bank saw its share value plummet by Rs. 7.40 or 3.16% to Rs. 227.00. The counter’s price was partly driven by foreign accumulation and interest in the very recent past.

ASI dipped 4.43 points (0.08%) to close at 5,726.11 and the S&P SL20 index lost 5.35 points (0.17%) to close at 3,219.50. Turnover was Rs. 484.4Mn.

Top contributors to turnover were John Keells Holdings with Rs. 327.6Mn, Commercial Bank with Rs. 19.0Mn and Dialog Axiata with Rs. 15.6Mn. Most active counters for the day were John Keells Holdings, Touchwood Investments and PC House.

Notable gainers for the day were SLT up by 3.5% to close at Rs. 44.90, Regnis up by 3.4% to close at Rs. 61.00 and Kotmale Holdings up by 2.9% to close at Rs. 35.50. Notable losers for the day were CIC Holdings down by 5.2% to close at Rs. 58.80, PC House down by 4.3% to close at Rs. 4.50 and Citrus Kalpitiya down by 3.3% to close at Rs. 5.90.

Cash map for today was a disappointing 29.96%. Foreign participation was 43.47% of total market turnover with net foreign buying at Rs. 296.6Mn.