Heavy sellouts in CSE’s index-heavy counters

By Hiran H. Senewiratne

The CSE posted its third consecutive sharp fall yesterday amid relatively low investor activity but turnover was heathy and above average.

The market was highly volatile at the beginning of the session, witnessed some positive trends later on but finally turned negative because there were heavy sellouts in index heavy two counters in Expolanka Holdings and LOLC Holdings, stock market analysts said.

This heavy sell out situation was made use of by bargain hunters during the day and indices fell to three-week lows, recording a second consecutive session of losses due to price declines in heavyweight counters across sectors, market analysts said.

It is said the ASPI commenced the session with sharp volatility, dropping 165 points in early trade and immediately surged 173 points to reach an intra-day high of 13,218 (+7 points). Thereupon, the index trended downwards dragged by price declines in LOLC (-2.4 per cent), Samapth Bank (-2.1per cent) and Expolanka Holdings (-1.4per cent).

Amid those developments both indices showed a downwards trend. The All- Share Price Index went down by 180 points and S and P SL20 declined by 78.16 points. Turnover stood at Rs 7.6 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in Chevron Lubricants, which crossed 252,000 shares to the tune of Rs 39.9 million, its shares traded at Rs 122.50 and Access Engineering 635,000 shares crossed for Rs 21.9 million, its shares traded at Rs 34.50.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, Expolanka Holdings Rs 2 billion (5.3 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 736 million (46.7 million shares traded), Softlogic Life Insurance Rs 613 million (four million shares traded), LOLC Holdings Rs 235 million (196,000 shares traded), DIMO Rs 220 million (157.000 shares traded), Hayleys Rs 215 million (1.5 million shares traded) and LOLC Finance Rs 205 million (eight million shares traded). During the day 232 million share volumes changed hands in 59000 transactions.

The Capital Goods sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to Access Engineering and Royal Ceramics) while the sector index lost 0.61 percent. The share price of Access Engineering recorded a gain of 80 cents to close at Rs. 35. The share price of Royal Ceramics declined by 70 cents (0.91per cent) to close at Rs. 76.

The Transportation sector was the second highest contributor to the market turnover (due to Expolanka Holdings) while the sector index decreased by 1.42 per cent. The share price of Expolanka Holdings decreased by Rs. 5.25 (1.37 per cent) to close at Rs. 377.

Separately, JKH, On’ally Holdings and JAT Holdings announced their interim dividends of 50 cents, Rs. 2.10 and 25 cents per share respectively.

Yesterday, the US dollar was quoted at Rs 202, which was the Central Bank controlled price to prevent price escalation of imported essential items in the country. The actual price of a US dollar would be more than Rs 250, market sources said.