Quote for the day

“Remember, the markets are set up to naturally take advantage of and prey upon human nature, moving sharply only when enough people get trapped on the wrong side of a trade.” - John F. Carter

LSL Market Review 03rd Apr 2013

Banks were the star performers today with Nation Development Bank, DFCC Bank and Union Bank reaching their 52-week highs. National Development Bank, which declared LKR 10.00 dividend in last week, closed at LKR 171.00 (+1.6%) with only one day remaining before the XD. DFCC Bank closed at LKR 137.10 (+3.8%) while speculators drove Union Bank share to LKR 19.30 (+12.2%) during today’s trading session.

ASI advanced by 23.85 points (+0.42%) to close at 5,728.47 and the S&P SL20 index gained 15.90 points (+0.48%) to close at 3,305.27. Turnover was Rs.931.2Mn. Top contributors to turnover were John Keells Holdings with Rs.304.4Mn, National Development Bank with Rs.121.6Mn and Nations Trust Bank with Rs.92.8Mn.

Notable gainers for the day were Seylan Merchant (non-voting) up by 33.3% to close at Rs.0.40, Kalamazoo up by 22.1% to close at Rs.2199.00 and Softlogic Capital up by 19.2% to close at Rs.6.20. Notable losers for the day were Gestetner down by 10.9% to close at Rs.142.60, Multi Finance down by 8.5% to close at Rs.21.50 and Lanka Ceramic down by 8.1% to close at Rs.60.10.

Union Bank, Nation Development Bank and Pan Asia Bank were the mostly traded stocks. Further, among the heavily traded stocks Central Finance dropped by 7.2% and reached 52 week low price of Rs.2.50 during the day.

Cash amp for today was 61.7%. Foreign participation was 21.7% of total market turnover whilst net foreign buying was Rs. 328.0Mn. Yields on 3-months and 12-months treasury bills remained flat on today’s auction while 6-month bids rejected.