January 29, 2019, 8:38 pm
by Hiran H Senewiratne
The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) recorded a net foreign inflow after August 2018 with the positive signs of USA and China trade war settling down plus the government's payment of Rs one billion net liabilities to lending agencies, stock market analysts said yesterday.
Amid those developments Sri Lankan rupee had appreciated by 0.6 percent against the US dollar during the year up to 28 January 2019 whilst during the year 2018, the Sri Lankan rupee depreciated by 16.4 percent against the US dollar while also depreciating against other major currencies, the latest Central Bank data points out.
Accordingly, reflecting cross currency movements, the Sri Lankan Rupee depreciated against other major currencies except for the Euro and the Indian rupee during the first 28 days of 2019.
It is said that from 1st to 23rd January net foreign inflows touched Rs 4.7 billion in the government' s securities market. Both indices moved upward, ie All Share Price Index by 23.6 points and S and P SL20 by 31.29 points. The day's turnover stood at Rs 841.9 million with three crossings. Those crossings came from Central Finance, which crossed 3.65 million to the tune of Rs 365.4 million per share value Rs 100, Ceylinco Insurance 50,000 shares crossed for Rs 95.5 million per share value Rs 1910 and Ceylon Cold Stores 36,500 shares crossed for Rs 24.8 million per share value Rs 680.
In the retail market, companies that mainly contributed to day's turnover were Browns Investment Rs 176.4 million (94 million shares traded), Sampath Bank Rs 59 million (246,700 shares traded), Central Finance Rs 27.3 million (274,300 shares traded), JKH Rs 14.4 million (91,000 shares traded) and MTD Walkers Rs 8.6 million (530,000 shares traded). During the day107.4 million share volume changed hands in 3,916 transactions.