Quote for the day

“Trading Stocks is simple mathematics 2+2= 4 but our greed makes it 5 and our panic makes it 3.” - Feroz Ahmed Khan

LSL - Market Review – 20th Dec 2012

Market seems to be building some momentum as foreign and local institutions were seen collecting parcels and retail quantities at these low levels of several blue-chips. Blue-chips received the lion’s share of the activity as retail participation remains on the sidelines. Plantation companies attracted renewed investor interest as tea prices fetched record prices in the most recent auction. To further compliment the pick-up in sentiment, todays’ cash map was a resounding 70.5% excluding crossings.

Distilleries Company has received an “AAA rating” by Fitch ratings which might indicate that a corporate debt instrument maybe in the offing in the future.

ASI gained 14.70 points (0.27%) to close at 5,527.36, MPI gained 9.76 points (0.19%) to close at 5,030.62 and the S&P SL20 index gained 12.87 points (0.43%) to close at 3,030.86. Turnover was Rs. 811.9Mn.

Top contributors to turnover were John Keells Holdings with Rs. 572.2Mn, Aitken Spence with Rs. 67.2Mn and Commercial Bank with Rs. 49.0Mn. Most active counters for the day were Nation Lanka Finance, Madulsima Plantations and Central Finance & Investments.

Notable gainers for the day were Capital Alliance Finance up by 19.9% to close at Rs. 24.10, Madulsima Plantations up by 10.0% to close at Rs. 16.50 and United Motors up by 5.6% to close at Rs. 95.00. Notable losers for the day were Expo Lanka down by 2.9% to close at Rs. 6.80, Regnis down by 2.4% to close at Rs. 58.00

Foreign participation was 53% of total market turnover whilst net foreign buying was Rs. 533Mn.