Wednesday’s loss was the largest percentage index fall since February 22, the bourse data showed.
Finance minister in his debut speech in the parliament said that Sri Lanka is facing severe external crisis as well as a domestic crisis with revenues falling and expenses continuing to rise. He also said the government will not borrow expensive loans and will only go for concessionary loans.
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The multiple crisis come amid Coronavirus pandemic and unprecedented money printing which has triggered a plethora of economic controls.
The country’s risky assets have unusually gained partly due to record low-interest rates, excess liquidity in money markets, and some businesses being disrupted due to import controls triggered by money printing. The trend of net foreign selling has been continuing since early last year.
Analysts had expected a market fall with the central bank’s unexpected monetary tightening measures since August 19 and successive increase of a ceiling yield on 12-month Treasury bills.
“The margin calls is one reason for the market fall,” a broker said.
“And the other reason is the rates of the rupee. Yesterday the central bank quoted rupee around 200 rupees against US dollars and that has brought a negative impact to the market.”
The broker said the import and export industry has impacted due to mismatch between the dollar rate quoted by the central bank and the rate at which importers can buy.
Brokers said, if a market correction starts, the market will fall by 10-15 percent.
The index closed 328.53 points down at 8,764.21 points. It continued to fall throughout the day and fell to a daily low of 8,660.85.
The S& P SL20 index of more liquid stocks fell 2.33 percent or 79.48 points to close at 3,335.98.
Foreign investors sold a net 244 million worth of shares on Wednesday, and the market has suffered a net foreign outflow of over 41.1 billion rupees so far this year.
The day’s turnover was 10.4 billion rupees, well over this year’s average daily turnover of around 4 billion rupees.
The fall was led by, Expolanka Holdings, LOLC holdings and Brown Investments, which have been on the rise in August on speculation that their dollarized assets were going to increase the profitability despite economic hardships.
Expolanka Holdings, the market heavy weight which has the highest market capitalization in the market and a significant export component in its business, fell 6.27 percent to close at 172.00 rupees.