Sri Lanka stocks close up 0.9-pct

Jan 02, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka stocks end on a strong note Thursday with index heavy and diversified firms gaining despite net foreign selling, brokers said.

The Colombo benchmark All Share Price Index closed 55.26 points higher at 5,968.04, up 0.93 percent. The S&P SL20 closed 21.52 points higher at 3,285.39, up 0.66 percent.

Turnover was 944.12 million rupees, up from 565.25 million rupees last Tuesday, with stocks of 27 firms closing in the red against 174 gainers.

Commercial Bank closed 40 cents lower at 120.00 rupees with an off market transaction of 431.24 million rupees contributing to 46 percent of turnover today.

JKH’s W0022 warrants closed 7.60 rupees higher at 87.60 rupees and its W0023 warrants closed 2.40 rupees higher at 96.90 rupees, attracting most number of trades during the day.

Foreigners bought 223 million rupees worth shares while selling 574 million rupees of shares.

JKH closed 1.90 rupees higher at 229.20 rupees and Distilleries closed 6.10 rupees higher at 199.10 rupees, contributing most to the index gain.

Ceylon Tobacco Company closed 3.60 rupees higher at 1,188.00 rupees and Nestle Lanka closed 60 cents lower at 2,100.10 rupees.

Carson Cumberbatch closed flat at 350.00 rupees and Bukit Darah closed 1.90 rupees lower at 618.00 rupees.

Cargills Ceylon closed 3.00 rupees higher at 150.00 rupees and Aitken Spence closed 1.70 rupees higher at 104.00 rupees.

Commercial Leasing and Finance closed 20 cents higher at 4.00 rupees and Lanka Orix Leasing Company closed 40 cents higher at 73.00 rupees.

DFCC closed 4.20 rupees higher at 133.20 rupees and Ceylinco Insurance closed 5.00 rupees higher at 1,345.00 rupees.

HNB closed 1.00 rupee higher at 148.00 rupees.
www.lbo.lk

WRITTEN BY THARANGA SENARATNE

Jan 02, 2014 (LBT) ASPI rallying towards psychological resistance 6,000: Bourse extended the gains from New Year’s Eve into a notable bull run today recording a 55 points gain in the ASPI to end at 5,968.04. Positive contributors to the ASPI were John Keells Holdings (+0.8%), Distilleries (+3.2%) and Commercial Leasing and Finance (+5.3%). S&P SL20 too journeyed on a similar note and ended at 3,285.39 with a gain of 22 points.

COMB recorded the only crossing: Commercial Bank spearheaded the daily turnover supported by a single crossing which amounted to 3.6mn shares which changed hands at LKR118.0. COMB depicted on-board interest too backed by 5 transactions amounting to 80k shares which were picked in late trading hours at LKR120.0.

On-board interest on a range of counters: Notable on-board interest was seen in John Keells Holdings with active investor participation and the counter ended at LKR229.2 gaining 0.8%. Chevron Lubricants depicted on-board interest mainly on account of a single transaction amounting to 200k shares at LKR268.5. LLUB closed at LKR268.6 with a gain of 0.3%. Lanka IOC further extended its rally breaking the resistance near LKR33.0 and settled at LKR35.2 gaining 6.7%. The counter depicted mounting buying pressure during the day with the largest buying block being c. 78k shares at LKR34.5.

Low Retail activity: Retail participation was low, however concentrated on Lanka IOC, Asia Asset Finance and John Keells Holdings (Warrants).
www.lbt.lk

ASPI up 55 points, turnover Rs. 944 million

The Colombo bourse yesterday opened trading for the New Year with both indices gaining tidily on a turnover of Rs.944.1 million, down from the previous day’ Rs.1.3 billion, with 104 gainers galloping ahead of 26 losers while 99 counters closed flat.

The ASPI rose up 55.26 points (0.93%) while S&P SL20 was up 21.52 points (0.66%) with the ASPI at 5,968.04 point now approaching 6,000-point barrier, brokers said.

"It was one of the biggest single day gains on the All Share in a long time," a broker said. "Possibly, the Central Bank’s Road Map for 2014 presented in the morning helped ginger the market."

Commercial Bank (voting) with a single crossing of nearly 3.7 million shares at Rs.118 contributed a massive Rs.444.2 million to turnover. This, together with floor trades of nearly 0.5 million ComBank shares contributing Rs.55.1 million to the day’s business volume accounted for over Rs.418 million of the day’s business.

Among ComBank’s floor trades, there was one large parcel of 335,000 shares transacted with the counter closing 40 cents down at Rs.120 trading between Rs.118 and Rs.121.20.

JKH was the most traded stock on the floor closing Rs. 1.70 up at Rs.229 with over 0.2 million shares done between Rs.228 and Rs.230 contributing Rs.57.3 million to turnover. Most of the trades were in smaller lots, brokers said.

JKH warrants too were actively traded with W0022 closing Rs.6.10 up at Rs.86.10 on nearly 0.3 million and W0023 closing Rs.2.50 up at Rs.97 on 0.1 million

Chevron closed Rs.1.20 up at Rs.269 on over 0.2 million shares done between Rs.267.70 and Rs.270 contributing Rs.56.8 million to turnover. Two big parcels accounted for much of the trades.

LIOC, trading mostly in smaller lots, closed Rs.2.20 up at Rs.35.30 on over 0.9 million shares contributing Rs.31.5 million to turnover. The counter traded between Rs.33.40 and Rs.36.

Distilleries closed Rs.6 up at Rs.199 on over 0.1 million shares contributing Rs.26.2 million to turnover while HNB (voting) closed Rs.3 up at Rs.150 on over 0.1 million shares generating Rs.19.2 million business volume.

Overseas Realty saw over a million shares done closing 20 cents up at Rs.18.50 contributing Rs.1 million to turnover; Textured Jersey with nearly a million shares traded closed 20 cents up at Rs.16 contributing Rs.15.4 million to turnover and Tokyo (voting) closed 90 cents up at Rs.29.40 on nearly 0 .5 million shares.

Arpico Finance announced a rights issue of 02 new shares for every 03 held at a price of Rs.50 per share to strengthen Tier One long-term capital requirements.
http://island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=95145

The Colombo Equities kicked off the New Year on a strong note and closed in the positive territory for the fifth consecutive day as the policy rate cut boosted the investor sentiment.

Policy rate cut
The central bank reduced its standing lending facility rate by 50 basis points to 8% while maintaining the other at 6.5%, in the view of boosting the economic growth amid the benign inflationary pressures. According to Government statistics, the inflation has reduced to 22 month low of 4.7% in December 2013.

This was the third time central bank reduced the policy rates in the last twelve months. In-line with the reduction in policy rates, the market interest rates have declined over the period. For example, the Commercial Bank average weighted prime lending rate has declined by 452 bps to 9.88%.

Share prices increased across the board
The reduction in the policy rate enthused the stock market and ASI posted the fifth largest daily gain in an opening day and closed at 5,968.04, with a gain of 55.26 points or 0.9%. Interestingly the bourse has opened for the New Year on a positive note since 2003. On the other hand, the 20 script S&P gained 24.40 points or 0.8% to close at 3,288.27.

Gainers outweighed the losers 196 to 27. Cash map closed at healthy 66%.

Price appreciations in blue chips such as John Keells Holdings (LKR 229.00,+0.8%), Distilleries (LKR 199.00,+3.1%), Commercial Leasing Co (LKR 4.00,+5.3%), Lanka IOC (LKR 35.30,+6.7%) and DFCC (LKR 132.00,+2.3%) contributed positively to the index performances.

Six scripts namely, Lanka IOC, John Keells Holdings – warrant 22 (LKR 86.10,+7.6%), Tokyo Cement (LKR 29.40,+3.2%), John Keells Holdings -warrant 23 (LKR 97.00,+2.7%), Tokyo Cement – nonvoting (LKR 25.30,+8.1%) and Richard Peiris Exports (LKR 47.80,+7.2%) reached 52 week high during the day.

The market turnover was LKR 944mn.

Top contributor to the turnover: Commercial Bank
Commercial Bank accounted for 51% of the market turnover and reported a turnover of LKR 486mn. 3.7mn shares of Commercial Bank changed hands in a single crossing today at a price of LKR 118.00 per share. The script closed at LKR 120.00,-0.3%.

Apart from Commercial Bank, John Keells Holdings (LKR 57mn), Chevron Lubricants (LKR 57mn) and Lanka IOC (LKR 32mn) were among the top contributors to the market turnover while Lanka IOC, Asia Asset Finance (LKR 2.00,+5.3%), John Keells Holdings – warrant 22, Textured Jersey (LKR 16.00,+5.3%) and HVA Foods (LKR 10.50,+6.1%) were among the heavily traded stocks of the day.

Net foreign selling
Foreign investors were net sellers after six consecutive days’ of net buying with a net outflow of LKR 351mn. Foreign participation accounted for 42% of the market activity. Net foreign outflows were reported in stocks such as Commercial Bank (LKR 429mn), Overseas Realty (LKR 19mn) and Lanka IOC (LKR 9mn) while net inflows were reported in counters such as John Keells Holdings (LKR 47mn) and Distilleries (LKR 23mn).

Pursuant to the capitalization of reserves, 70mn voting shares and 10mn non-voting shares of Tess Agro were listed today. The voting share closed at LKR 1.30,0% and nonvoting share closed at LKR 1.10,+10%.

As per the announcement made to CSE, Dankotuwa Porcelain concluded the acquisition of 76% stake in Royal Fernwood Porcelain Limited for a consideration of LKR 300mn. The counter closed at LKR 13.30,+3.1%.

Rights issue in Arpico Finance
Arpico Finance announced a rights issue (02 new shares for every 03 shares held at LKR 50.00 per share) to raise LKR 149mn to meet the tier-1 long term capital adequacy requirement. Arpico Finance which is a member of Alliance group successfully raised LKR 356mn through a debenture issue in November 2013. The counter closed at LKR 104.00,+8.3%.

Road map 2014
Meanwhile, Central Bank governor delivered his annual policy speech and presented the road map - monetary and financial sector policies for 2014 today. As per the media reports, NDB and DFCC banks will have to merge and the plans for the merger are expected to be submitted by June 2014. In anticipation of this merger, both stocks gained notably during past month where DFCC share price increased by 10.0% to LKR 132.00 and share price of NDB increased by 5.8% to LKR 164.00 in one-month period.

Further, in the view of creating strong local banks, the governor mentioned that smaller banks with less than LKR 100bn in assets should grow or merge during a ‘reasonable period’. As per Sep 2013 interim financials, assets base in Pan Asia Bank (LKR 66bn), Sanasa Development Bank (LKR 29bn), Union Bank (LKR 35bn), DFCC Bank (LKR 89bn) and HDFC Bank (LKR 24mn) were below the LKR 100bn mark.

Moreover, the central bank expects to reduce the number of non-bank financial institutions to 20 from 58. Thus the regulator has encouraged the finance companies to merge with each other/banks.

Source:JBS