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Distilleries managed to grab investor attention:
Market up on thin volumes
 THE Colombo bou-rse gained momentum during the week with the indices
gaining ground and continuing to hold the pace throughout the week.
However profit taking dragged indices down marginally on Friday.
The ASPI (All Share Price Index) increased by 30 points to 2586.6
points representing an increase of 1.17 per cent while the more liquid
MPI (Milanka Price Index) ended 46.4 points or 1.34 per cent higher at
3506.2 points. HNB generated the highest turnover for the week
representing 37 per cent of weekly turnover.
A sizeable share block of 4.4 million got traded on Wednesday at a
price of Rs. 93 with a value of approximately 409.2 million.
This single trade alone contributed to 98 per cent of HNB turnover of
Rs. 415.6 million for the week. Counter witnessed a slight 0.24 per cent
appreciation in its share price to close the week at Rs. 101.5 per
share.
Speculative trading was seen on the forestry counter Touchwood, which
managed to become the second largest contributor towards the week by
adding Rs. 56.2 million of turnover.
The share price having been traded within a price range of Rs. 78.5
and Rs. 89.7 per share gained 3.01 per cent during the week to close at
Rs. 85.5 per share.
Distilleries too managed to grab investor attention this week trading
almost 0.5 million of its shares, with share prices in the range of Rs.
107 and Rs. 109.25 thus making a total contribution of Rs. 53.5 million.
The stock gained 0.94 per cent this week to close at Rs. 107 per share.
John Keells Hotels PLC’s (KHL) voluntary offer to acquire 100 per
cent shareholding of the three Confifi Group Hotels lead the prices of
Riverina Hotels and Confifi Hotel Holding each to depreciate by 10.2 per
cent and 11.6 per cent respectively and Eden Hotel Lanka remained flat
over the week while KHL itself closed up 12.5 per cent at Rs. 9 per
share.
KHL generated Rs. 45.5 million of turnover during the week thus
becoming a leading contributor to this week’s market turnover.
The announcement resulted in an increased activity in hotel sector
counters on Friday.
During the week market turnover amounted to only Rs. 1.13 billion
which is a sizeable 70.5 per cent decline from previous week’s Rs. 3.82
billion.
Wednesday’s turnover, mainly attributed by the big transaction on HNB
accounted for 51 per cent of week’s total turnover. Meanwhile the daily
average turnover stood at Rs. 225.5 million down by 76.4 per cent from
last week.
Foreign purchases surpassed foreign sales this week making overseas
investors net buyers with Rs. 76.9 million of net inflows.
Both foreign purchases and sales were substantially down from last
week to stand at Rs. 184.3 million and Rs. 107.4 million respectively
reflecting reductions of 90.6 per cent and 95.9 respectively.
Of all activity foreign participation amounted to 13 per cent.
Heavily traded stocks for the week were Keells Hotels, HNB, Tess Agro
and Malwatte. Weak macro fundamentals to hurt the market. Market gained
on relatively thin volumes during the week with low retail activity
continuing for yet another week.
The All Share Price index (ASPI) gained by 30 points during the week
while the sensitive Milanka Price Index (MPI) gained 46.4 points
compared to last Friday’s closing level.
Activity levels to remain low
During the next week we expect the market to find resistance near
2600 level.
With interest rates and inflation still persisting at high levels, we
do not anticipate the market activity to improve significantly during
the coming week. In the absence of any positive developments we expect
the ASPI to hover around 2,600 and activity levels to remain moderate
during next week.
“This information has been compiled from sources that we believe to
be reliable but we do not hold ourselves responsible for its
completeness or accuracy.
No matter published herein create any liability of any kind of HNB
Stockbrokers (Private) Limited or its associates. |
