Sunday 28 April 2013

LSL Weekly Market Focus

Interest on blue-chips helped shore up most of the losses caused by profit taking on small and mid-capped counters on Monday. Commercial Bank continued to witness private deals as foreign appetite seems to be focused on banking counters. Retail investors once again proved its thirst for speculation on Colombo Land & Development.

ASI lost 9.82 points (0.17%) to close at 5,872.43 and the S&P SL20 index gained 2.26 points (0.07%) to close 3,338.38. Turnover was Rs. 885.3Mn.

Market ended with positive returns with small caps gaining ground on Tuesday. Lion Brewery and Asiri Hospitals saw crossings of 0.5mn shares at LKR 360.00 and 3.0mn shares at LKR 14.00 respectively. These were the main contributors to the market turnover (a contribution of LKR 188.0mn and LKR 63.4mn respectively) followed by National Development Bank with LKR 56.6mn.

During the day ASI advanced by 11.09 index points (+0.19%) to close at 5,883.52 and S&P SL 20 Index advanced by 6.47 index points (+0.195) to close at 3,344.85. Daily market turnover was LKR 708.6mn.


Indices gained considerable ground helped by gains on Ceylon Tobacco Company and Chevron Lubricants on Wednesday. Retail favourite Colombo Land & Development rallied with solid activity. A major shareholder of Panasian Power reduced their stake whilst Hemas power was the buyer. The latter will be expanding its portfolio of power generating sites in effect. Investors speculated on Ceylon Tobacco Company announcing its interim dividend anytime soon. High dividend yielding counters are expected to see price appreciations in the short-term.

ASI gained 50.21 points (0.85%) to close at 5,933.73 and the S&P SL20 index 13.66 gained (0.41%) points to close at 3,358.51. Turnover was Rs. 975.3Mn.

Retail investors made merry of the prevailing optimistic sentiment on Friday. Retail favourite counters were seen rallying whilst most blue-chips were largely unchanged. Colombo Land & Development, Touchwood

Investments and Colombo Fort Land & Buildings were some of today’s hot picks.

Meanwhile, Nestle announced a hefty dividend with the counter moving up around 1.7%.
ASI gained 28.44 points (0.48%) to close at 5,962.17 and the S&P SL20 edged 0.85 points (0.03%) to close at 3,359.36. Turnover was Rs. 1,345.1Mn.

Top contributors to turnover were Lion Brewery with Rs. 194.1Mn, John Keells Holdings with Rs. 114.1Mn and Colombo Land & Development with Rs. 85.8Mn. Most active counters for the day were Touchwood Investments, Colombo Land & Development and Citrus Kalpitiya.

Notable gainers for the day were Touchwood Investments up by 25.8% to close at Rs. 7.80, Colombo Fort Land & Buildings up by 17.0% to close at Rs. 38.50 and Colombo Land & Development up by 12.8% to close at Rs. 52.90. Notable losers for the day were Hemas Power down by 4.8% to close at Rs. 20.00, Namunukula Plantations down by 2.3% to close at Rs. 80.50 and ACL down by 2.0% to close at Rs. 67.70.


Cash map was 60.92%. Foreign participation was 27.23% of total market turnover whilst net foreign buying was Rs. 328Mn.