Hopes of equity-friendly budget boost bourse

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

CSE trading activities were positive from the beginning yesterday because stock market investors are expecting an equity market- friendly budget to be presented to parliament by Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa today, stock market analysts said.

The budget would be an investment- friendly, pro-private sector job- creation budget and it would target to attract foreign investments, analysts said. Sri Lanka’s budget this year is likely to look into the strategic interests of foreign countries as well as the country’s need for dollar inflows to boost its reserves, another analyst said.

Yesterday, new buying interest was witnessed in the LOLC Group of companies, especially LOLC Finance, whose share price appreciated by 24 percent or Rs 4.70. At the commencement of trading, shares stood at Rs 20.10 and at the end of the day they shot up to Rs 24.80.

Amid those developments both indices showed mixed reactions. The All Share Price Index went up by 163.77 points and S and P SL20 declined by 9.04 points. Turnover stood at Rs 6.8 billion with three crossings. The crossing were reported in Renuka Hotel, which crossed four million shares to the tune of Rs 80 million, its shares traded at Rs 20, Aitken Spence one million shares crossed for Rs 40 million, its shares traded at Rs 40 and Sampath Bank 500,000 shares crossed for Rs 27.5 million, its shares fetching Rs 55.

In the retail market, five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; LOLC Finance Rs 1.9 billion (80.2 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 539 million (46.5 million shares traded), Shaw Wallace Investments Rs 519 million (42.7 million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 305 million (1.5 million shares traded), LOLC Holdings Rs 296 million (438,000 shares traded) and Agalawatte Plantations Rs 245 million (seven million shares traded).

During the day, Watawala Plantations shares appreciated by 11 percent or Rs 8.30. Its share price shot up to Rs 81.60 due to recording healthy profits in the last quarter and also as a result of paying considerable dividends to shareholders. During the day 347 million share volumes changed hands in 55000 transactions. Further, the industry diversified financial sector contributed more than Rs 2.9 billion, which accounts for almost 50 per cent of the day’s turnover. The Diversified Financials sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to Lanka Orix Finance and LOLC Holdings).

It is said high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in Access Engineering, Vallibel One and JKH. Mixed interest was observed in R I L Property, Expolanka Holdings and LOLC Holdings, while retail interest was noted in Browns Investments, Lanka Orix Finance and Pan Asian Power. Yesterday, the US dollar was quoted at Rs 201.21, which was the controlled price set by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.