LSL - Weekly Market Review - W/E 30th Nov 2012

Market opened for the week on Monday on a negative note. ASI slipped 22.22 points (0.4%) MPI lost 19.70 points (0.4%) and S&P SL20 index shed 7.30 points (0.25%).. Turnover was Rs 116.0mn. John Keells Holdings (Rs. 26.7mn), Peoples Finance (Rs. 6.0mn) and Colombo Dockyard (Rs. 5.6mn) emerged as the top contributors to the turnover while relatively high activity was seen in Peoples Finance, Blue Diamond-non voting and Central Investments and Finance counters. Foreign participation was 15% of total market turnover whilst net foreign buying was Rs. 39Mn.

Stocks slumped on Colombo Bourse on Wednesday, again on low volumes with only 16mn shares traded. Market turnover picked up to LKR 739.5mn from last Monday mainly due to the crossings recorded in index heavy John Keells Holdings and Aitken Spence Holdings which accounted for 73% of the market turnover. Benchmark All Shares Index slipped by 50.21 points (-0.93%) while sensitive MPI lost 77.36 index points (-1.57%) and S&P SL 20 Index lost 25.24 points (-0.85%).  John Keells Holdings (Rs. 393.3mn) and Aitken Spence Holdings (Rs. 157.4mn) were the top contributors to the turnover followed by Peoples Finance (Rs. 23.9mn), which continued to attract high investor interest. Further, Commercial Bank, Swarnamahal Financial Services and Browns Investments were among the actively traded stocks. Foreign participation was 51% and foreign investors were net buyers with a net inflow of Rs. 395.6mn.

Colombo Stocks recovered on Thursday after two consecutive days of losses as all the market indices closed with positive returns. Retail investor participation also improved compared to the previous day. Off-the-floor deals from John Keells Holdings and Cargills Ceylon accounted for 38% of the market turnover. All Shares Index advanced by 28.92 points (+0.54%) while MPI gained 32.39 index points (+0.67%) and S&P SL 20 Index advanced by 17.39 points (+0.59%). Market turnover improved to Rs.877.5mn. Foreign participation was 32% of the total turnover and foreign investors were net buyers with a net inflow of Rs. 462mn.

On Friday market closed with negative performance. ASI lost 12.35 points (-0.23%), MPI lost 21.71 points (-0.44%) and S&P SL20 index lost 10.14 points (-0.34%). Turnover was Rs. 344.8mn. Top contributors to the turnover were John Keells Holdings (Rs.51.9mn), Nestle Lanka (Rs.28.0mn) and Distilleries (Rs.25.6mn). further Odel-Rights, John Keells Holdings and Touchwood Investments traded heavily during the day. Odel-Rights commenced trading today and closed as the top gainer. Odel-Rights reached the high of Rs.1.10 and closed at Rs.0.50, up Rs.0.40 (+400%). Foreign participation was 27% of the total turnover and foreign investors were net buyers with a net inflow of Rs.29.3mn

During the week ASI lost by 55.86 points (-1.03%WoW) to end at 5,351.25 while liquid MPI dipped by 86.38 points (-1.74%%WoW) to close at 4,868.83. S&P SL 20 Index closed at 2,942.02, a drop of 25.29 index points (-0.85%WoW). Average daily market turnover was Rs.519.4mn (-62.9%WoW). Foreign participation for the week was 27.0%. At the end of the week foreign investors were the net buyers with a net foreign inflow of Rs.915.5mn.