Block trades perks up bourse: Turnover nudges billion, both indices up

Written by Tharanga Senaratne

Apr 11, 2013 (LBT) - Bourse on uptrend amidst holiday sentiment: Interestingly, the bourse was on a clear uptrend during the day on the back of the holiday sentiments. ASPI rallied to an intra-day high of 30 points and settled the day with a gain of 19 points to close at 5,813.37. The gains recorded in Ceylon Tobacco Company (+1.1%), Hatton National Bank (2.0%) and Vallibel One (+3.5%) pushed the overall index up during trading. Turnover of the day was primarily backed by off-board transactions where they accounted for 57.0% of the overall turnover.

HNB dominating the crossing board: Banking giant Hatton National Bank spearheaded the daily turnover with four crossings accumulating to 2.7mn shares which changed hands at a price of LKR168.0. However the counter witnessed lackluster activity on-board and ended at LKR165.8 (+2.0%). Off-board activity was also seen in counters Cargills (Ceylon), Dialog Axiata and Central Finance. The former recorded a single off-board transaction of 199k shares which was dealt at a price of LKR153.0 and also a single on-board block of 127k shares which was transacted at LKR153.0

Heavy on Board Interest on Commercial Bank: Commercial Bank attracted heavy investor interest with active trading throughout the day. The counter transacted a single large on-board block of 441k shares in late trading which was dealt at a price of LKR113.5 and closed for the day at LKR113.5 (+0.4%) Retail activity UBC and FLCH: Retail activity was notable in Union Bank and Free Lanka Capital Holdings where the former which displayed a rally recently closed today at LKR20.6 with a gain of 5.6%.
http://lbt.lk/stock-market/movement/4140-bourse-on-uptrend-amidst-the-holiday-season

COLOMBO, April 11 (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan rupee scaled to a new one-year closing high on Thursday on continued inward remittances and exporter conversions ahead of the traditional new year, dealers said.

The rupee edged up to 125.35/40 to the dollar, its highest close since April 9, 2012, from Wednesday's close of 125.40/50.

The rupee has been on the rise since mid-March on inflows from remittances and exporter dollar sales ahead of the traditional new year, which most Sri Lankans will celebrate on April 13 and April 14.

Currency dealers expect the currency to appreciate further in the coming weeks due to an expected inflow of $500 million from a bond sale by state-run Bank of Ceylon.

The currency has risen 1.73 percent this year after falling 10.7 percent in 2012.

The main stock index gained 0.33 percent, or 19.07 points, to 5,813.37, its highest close since Feb. 15.

Analysts said hopes of falling interest rates boosted sentiment, though the market saw thin trade as many investors were on holiday ahead of the traditional new year.

Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera on Tuesday said Sri Lanka's interest rates should fall in May-June as the borrowing needs of loss-making state energy firms recede.

Stockbrokers said the broad market expects the central bank to slash the key monetary policy rates at its April monetary board meeting. The April monetary policy rates will be announced at 0200 GMT on Tuesday.

Turnover was at an over-two-week low of 940.5 million rupees, less than this year's daily average of 1 billion rupees.

Foreign investors were net buyers of 479.5 million rupees worth of shares, extending the year-to-date net foreign inflow to 6.45 billion Sri Lanka rupees ($51.46 million). Last year, the bourse saw a net inflow of $303 million. ($1 = 125.3500 Sri Lanka rupees)

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Anand Basu)
http://www.xe.com/news/2013/04/11/3300585.htm?c=1&t=

The Colombo bourse yesterday saw a respectable turnover of Rs.940.5 million, up from the previous day’s Rs.309.4 million, with both indices moving up for the second consecutive day – the All Share by 19.07 points (0.33%) and S&P SL20 by 6.93 points (0.21%) with 130 gainers comfortably ahead of 57 losers while 124 counters closed flat.

Brokers said that much of the day’s turnover came off block trades with 2.7 million HNB traded in four large parcels at a price of Rs.168 per share, 128,000 Cargills done at Rs.153, 2.9 million Dialog at Rs.9.20 and 125,000 Central Finance at Rs.180.

Commercial Bank (voting) was the most traded stock on the floor with over 0.9 million shares done closing 50 cents up at Rs.113.50 contributing Rs.103.7 million to turnover. Dialog followed closing flat at Rs.9.20 on 3.4 million shares while NDB closed 20 cents up at Rs.165 on nearly 0.2 million shares.

Cargills saw nearly 0.2 million shares traded closing flat at Rs.153, Carsons 40,002 shares done gaining a rupee to close at Rs.450 and Panasian Power closing flat at Rs.2.90 on nearly 6.1 million shares.

Union Bank continued to be heavily traded gaining Rs.1.10 to close at Rs.20.60 on nearly 0.8 million shares with its Chairman, Mr. Alexis Lovell informing the Stock Exchange that several web reports saying he was selling out of the bank was incorrect.

He said that he had no intention of selling his stake in Union Bank at the present moment.

Free Lanka Capital Holdings gained 20 cents to close at Rs.2.70 on nearly 5.2 million shares.

John Keells Stockbrokers noted that ASPI had ended higher for the second consecutive day with turnover nearing the rupees one billion mark supported by crossings in HNB, Cargills, Dialog and Central Finance accounting for over 55% of turnover.

There was a net foreign inflow of Rs.479.5 million with foreign purchases running at Rs.604.7 million and sales at Rs.125.2 million.
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