CSE crossings in Cargills, Expolanka and TJ Lanka

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

So far more than a Rs. 30 billion foreign outflow has been reported from the CSE, while last year the foreign outflow was Rs. 48 billion, stock market analysts said.

On the other hand, CNBC (Singapore) quoting a JPMorgan strategist report said that the best time to buy Asian stocks could be now.

Mixo Das, Asia equity strategist at the bank said US markets have been hitting record levels while Europe and Japan are approaching their all-time highs. However, Asian markets have not seen the same trend.

“Ever since the highs in February, we’re down quite a bit in Asian equities and the way we look at it is, our framework is telling us that now is probably the best time to be taking risks in Asia,” he told CNBC recently.

The report said that investor positioning in Asia is currently “extremely light” while valuations have come down to more normal levels. If macroeconomic momentum in the region starts to stabilise, Asia stocks could move a lot higher, the report revealed.

Amids those developments, both CSE indices showed downward trend yesterday. All Share Price Index went down by 19.50 points and S and P SL20 went down by 1.05 points. It is said that the LOLC Development Finance share price which depreciated by Rs. 22 or five percent had contributed 16 negative points to the All Share Price Index. Another reason for the index to become negative was that JKH, Browns Investments, LOLC and several other high profile companies’ had notable profit taking, which triggered selling pressure on their stocks during the day, market analysts said.

Turnover stood at Rs 3.08 billion with three crossings. Those crossings reported in Cargills, which crossed 3.72 million shares to the tune of Rs. 930.2 million, its shares traded at Rs. 250, Expolanka one million shares crossed for Rs. 54.9, its shares traded at Rs 54.90 and TJLanka 500,000 shares crossed for Rs. 20.5 million, its shares traded at Rs. 41.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were Expolanka Rs 451.7 million (8.4 million shares traded), Singer (Sri Lanka) Rs 152.5 million (8.2 million shares traded), TJLanka Rs 121.4 million (2.95 million shares traded), LOLC Rs 105 million (246,000 shares traded), RIL Properties Rs. 73 million (9.3 million shares traded). It is also said that there was a foreign outflow of around Rs. 930.2 million. During the day 219.1 million share volumes changed hands in 24546 transactions.

Meanwhile, Hatton National Bank’s (HNB) Rs. 7 billion BASEL III compliant listed debenture issue was oversubscribed on its official opening day. HNB said, as per the prospectus, the issue closed following oversubscription.

The bank issued 50 million BASEL III compliant-Tier 2, listed, rated, unsecured, subordinated, redeemable debentures with a non-viability conversion at Rs. 100 each to raise Rs. 5 billion and offered a further 20 million debentures to raise Rs. 2 billion in the event of an oversubscription of the initial amount. The debentures carry a fixed rate of 9.50 percent payable annually. Joint managers and placement agents were Acuity Partners Ltd. and Capital Alliance Partners Ltd., respectively.