The election of a government widely perceived as business friendly did not reflect on the Colombo bourse yesterday where turnover at Rs. 2.3 billion, up from the previous day’s Rs. 1.56 billion, was good but the ASPI ended flat gaining a fraction of a point while S&) SL20 did better moving up 6.60 points (0.16%) with 107 gainers ahead of 98 losers while 120 counters closed flat.
"Turnover was good but there was no market movement where the broader index was concerned while S&P gained slightly," a broker said. "The ASPI cleared the 7,500-point barrier during intraday trading but closed slightly under. Over half the day’s trading was on block trades. These were mainly in blue chips - JKH, Distilleries, NTB, and Dialog. There were also crossings in Access and Bansai Royal Resorts."
He said that the previous day’s ‘chicken run’ had run out of steam though Ceylon Grain Elevators topped the floor trades closing a rupee down at Rs. 81 on nearly 0.8 million shares. Three Acre Farms was at the bottom of the most traded list closing Rs. 1.60 up at R. 125.50 on 0.2 million shares. Bairaha Farms was not on this list closing Rs. 2.70 down at Rs. 187.10 on slightly over 0.1 million shares.
Retailers were less active than on Tuesday while the foreign outflow continued with purchases of Rs. 725.53 million behind sales of Rs. 787.01 million leading to a net outflow of Rs. 61.48 million.
Off-floor transactions were headed by NTB where a parcel of 4.8 million shares was done at Rs. 105 contributing Rs. 504 million to turnover. JKH saw 1.7 million shares done in five parcels, four at Rs. 191 and one at Rs. 190.50 (Rs. 326.9 million) while two parcels of Distilleries totaling nearly 0.5 million were crossed at Rs. 300 (Rs. 148.3 million). A parcel of 1.9 million Access was done at Rs. 26.40 (Rs. 50.2 million), a parcel of 3.25 million Dialog at Rs. 11.90 (Rs. 38.7 million) and a single block of 16.6 million Bansai Royal at Rs. 11 (Rs. 180 million).
"The ASPI ended flat for the day amid high turnover levels," John Keells Stock Brokers said in a market wrap. "The banking, diversified, manufacturing, food & beverage, finance and hotels & travels sectors dominated turnover today with crossings seen on NTB, JKH, BRR, DIST, AEL, and DIAL."
Banks, Finance & Insurance was the most actively traded sector (-0.15%), the report said.
Apart from Grain Elevators, Sierra Cables was the most traded stock on the floor closing flat at Rs. 4.40 on 12.3 million shares (Rs. 54.2 million). MTD Walker closed Rs. 1.90 up at Rs. 63.50 on over 0.8 million shares (Rs. 52.9 million) and Central Industries was up by Rs. 8.10 to close at Rs. 112 on over 0.4 million shares.
JKH closed 60 cents up to close at Rs. 190 on over 0.2 million shares, Dialog flat at Rs. 11,90 on over 3.8 million shares and Laugfs (non-voting) up 50 cents at Rs. 40 on a million shares.
Access and Textured Jersey remained on the most traded list with the former closing 20 cents up at Rs. 26.50 on nearly 1.1 million shares while TJL closer 40 cents down at Rs. 32.50 on over 850,000 shares.
Sampath which gained Rs. 1.80 to close at Rs. 278.50 on over 0.1 million shares was the only banking counter on the most traded list.
Associated Motor Finance announced a final dividend of Rs. 12 per share for 2014/15 XD from Aug. 28 and with payment on Sept. 8.
Courtesy: The Island 19 August 2015