CSE bounces back following four days of decline

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The CSE bounced back after four days of decline yesterday. The reason being that Lanka- IOC and Expolanka Holdings stocks showed some buying interest and in turn positively impacted other stocks in the market, analysts said.

Meanwhile, investors believe that the Central Bank will maintain its policy interest rates at the same level. President Ranil Wickremesinghe is to address parliament on the economic situation in the country today, and that too had a positive impact on the market.

Further, the previous day the Cabinet approved the 2023 appropriation bill which is likely to increase revenue collection and this too added to investor confidence, stock market analysts said.

Amid those developments both indices moved upwards. The All- Share Price Index went up by 81.96 points and S and P SL20 rose by 33.5 points. Turnover stood at Rs 2.6 billion with a single crossing, The crossing was reported in People’s Leasing and Finance, which crossed five million shares to the tune of Rs 30 million; its shares traded at Rs 6.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Lanka IOC Rs 567 million (2.3 million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 185 million (one million shares traded), Dankotuwa Porcelain Rs 167 million (5.3 million shares traded), JKH Rs 151 million (1.2 million shares traded), First Capital Holdings Rs 142 million (6.9 million shares traded), ACL Cables Rs 136 million (1.3 million shares traded) and Chevron Lubricants Rs 98 million (856,000 shares traded). During the day 102 million share volumes changed hands in 30000 transactions.

The bourse saw a net foreign inflow of Rs 21 million on Tuesday. The inflow so far this year is Rs 15.3 billion, after Rs 16.7 billion rupees of net offshore buying in the last 36 consecutive sessions amidpositive sentiment over an IMF deal.

The market saw its highest monthly net foreign inflows into the stock market last month in more than 10 years as some foreigners converted their dividend payment into risky assets because they could not get dollars to repatriate due to the forex crisis.

Yesterday, the Central Bank- announced US dollar buying rate was Rs 359.16 and the selling rate Rs 369.91.