CSE driven by expectations of debt restructuring with China

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

Trading activities at the CSE was positive yesterday after the announcement of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to China soon. One of the main reasons for his visit  was that  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that Sri Lanka should kick off debt restructuring talks with its bilateral lender China, while the  government seeks a financing loan from the Washington-based fund, market analysts said.

“China is a big creditor, and Sri Lanka has to engage proactively with it on a debt restructuring,” Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, told the International Media recently.

Amid these developments, the main All Share Price Index rose by 52.9 points and the most liquid index moved up  31.0 points. Turnover stood at Rs one billion without a single crossing. In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were Lanka IOC Rs 140 million (1.7 million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 113 million (655,000 shares traded), TJ Lanka Rs 63 million (1.4 million shares traded), Kotagala Plantations Rs 55.7 million (9.1 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 52.8 million (7.3 million shares traded), Balangoda Plantations  Rs 49.3 million (943,000 shares traded) and Printcare Rs 34.8 million (1.2 million shares traded), During the day 56 million share volume changed hands in 16000 share transactions.

According to the stock brokers, there was considerable participation in plantation sector counters. The reason being that the rupee depreciation has benefited especially tea exporters despite a yield drop in the sector due to fertilizer issues in the country. Further, in the month of July upto now net foreing inflows have touched Rs 754 million. On the previous day  itself  foreing outflows were reported at Rs 283 million.