NIFL takes stock market to positive territory

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

CSE activities indicated mixed reactions yesterday and, as usual, LOLC Development Finance (NIFL) shares appreciated and dragged the All Share Price Index to positive territory by contributing 50 points to the Index. Further, Nawaloka Hospital’s stocks witnessed an unusual buying interest and their shares also witnessed a price appreciation, stock market analysts said.

NIFL share prices increased by 22 percent or Rs. 101. Its shares started trading at Rs 462 and at the end of the day they shot up to Rs. 563, while Nawaloka Hospital which contributed three points to the All Share Price Index appreciated its share price by 19 percent or Rs 1.10. Its share price increased to Rs 6.80 from Rs 5.70.

Amid those developments, the All Share Price Index went up by 55.2 points and S and P SL20 by 16.5 points down. Turnover stood at Rs. 1.47 billion with two crossings. One crossing was reported in JKH, which crossed 4.25 million shares to the tune of Rs. 571.7 million and its shares traded at Rs. 134.75 and Commercial Bank 1.4 million shares crossed for Rs. 121 million while its shares traded at Rs. 86.50.

In the retail market, top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, Dipped Products Rs. 63.3 million (1.2 million shares traded), Nawaloka Hospitals Rs. 48.7 million (7.6 million shares traded), Sampath Bank Rs. 35.4 million (679,000 shares traded), Royal Ceramic Rs. 32.4 million (908,000 shares traded) and Expolanka Rs 32 million (650, 000 shares traded). 

JAT Holdings, Sri Lanka’s trusted industry leader in finishing and furnishing, recently announced the firm’s intention to enter an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on July 20, 2021. JAT Holdings’ IPO aims to raise Rs. 2.2 billion by offering 82,904,846 ordinary voting shares to the public. The IPO price per share of Rs. 27.00 offers an immediate upside of 21 percent to an incoming investor on the value per share of Rs. 32.70 derived from a combination of discounted cash flow (DCF) and forward-earnings ratio (PER) valuation methods. During the today’s CSE trading, 43.7 million share volumes changed hands in 14323 transactions.

 Sri Lanka’s rupee is being quoted in the kerb market at 225.00/226.50 to the US dollar as unusual demand for currency notes emerged over the past two weeks amid forex trading curbs in the formal market, participants said as money printing continued.

Generally which is offered by money changers in Colombo for Middle East returnees and others, it rose dramatically over the past month after a Covid-19 control was lifted and foreign exchange rationing began for imports.