CSE hits Rs. 23 billion record turnover; Browns Investments transactions account for 73 per cent

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

The CSE recorded its highest ever turnover yesterday amounting to more than  Rs. 23 billion, with crossings and retail tradings in  Brown  Investments  shares contributing approximately 73 percent to the turnover. Companies belonging to Ishara Nanayakkara, namely Oxford Capital Pvt Limited and Churchill Capital Pvt Limited sold their shares in Browns Investments to  Brown and Company, stock market analysts said.

It is said that Oxford Capital held 1.1 billion  and Churchill Capital 985 million of Browns Investments shares and together they sold 2.6 billion shares to the tune of Rs. 16.85 billion, with each share being traded at Rs. 5.40. With the crossings Brown and Company which held a 46.06 percent stake in Browns Investments increased its shareholding to 60.64 percent, stock analysts said.

Amid those developments, in the early session of the day the CSE witnessed some selling pressure. However with the Browns Investments crossings or internal transactions, the market became normal, but both indices indicated a downward trend. All Share Price Index went down by 101 points and S and P SL20 went down by 77.57 points.  Turnover stood at Rs. 23.75 billion with the crossing in Browns Investments.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, LOLC Holdings  Rs. 1.37 billion (2.6 million shares traded), Sampath Bank Rs. 590 million (2.94 million shares traded), Expolanka Rs. 515.5 million (9.8 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs. 514 million (76.4 million shares traded) and Vallibel One Rs. 513 million (6.2 million shares traded). During the day 86 billion share volumes changed hands in 42246 transactions.

In terms of volume of shares and number of trades, the performance in January was unprecedented. Over 10 billion shares changed hands via 960,300 trades. In comparison just 84 million shares in January last year and 163 million in 2019. The number of trades in January of 2020 and 2019 were 19,790 and 22,854 respectively.

CSE saw rapid net foreign selling though analysts opined they can’t be blamed as they are making rightful capital gains exiting when the market was on the rise. This was evident by the fact that Sampath Bank, which rose on the share sub division move, saw Rs. 1.9 billion in net selling. JKH saw Rs. 891 million worth of exits.

Friday’s net foreign selling was Rs. 2.3 billion, highest in nine months and took the year to date figure to Rs. 8.5 billion. Foreign investors sold Rs. 4.57 billion net last week as opposed to Rs. 2.36 billion a week earlier. 

 Sri Lanka rupee quoted stronger at 191/192 levels in the spot market yesterday, while bond yields were flat in dull market trade, dealers said. The rupee closed around 191.25/192 to the US dollar on Friday.