PRASAC Cambodia sale completed by LOLC Group; ASPI at all-time high

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The CSE witnessed an exceptional rally on LOLC Group stocks yesterday following an announcement by the company that it has received the second and final tranche of US $ 225 million in the sale of its shares in PRASAC Cambodia, a microfinance entity, to South Korea’s largest commercial bank Kookmin.

Initially LOLC had received US $ 422 million as the first tranche of the proceeds of the PRASAC Cambodia sale. The balance US $ 225 million was received on October 19. The transaction value of PRASAC is US $ 647 million, stock market analysts said.

Meanwhile, for the first time in CSE history, the ASPI surpassed 9,800 pts, closing at 9,881.5 pts at the end of the day. Turnover stood at Rs. 4.26 billion.

Yesterday the market was driven by the LOLC Group because of the PRASAC transaction. Investor savvy persons rallied around those stocks. Therefore, Commercial Leasing and Finance, being one of the subsidiaries of the LOCL Group, witnessed a 19 per cent or Rs 7 share appreciation. Its shares initially traded at Rs 37.40 but at the end of the day their price shot up to Rs 44.40, thus contributing 100 points to the All-Share Price Index. Further, LOLC Holdings PLC contributed 38 points to the All-Share Price Index.

The All-Share Price Index went up by 172 points and S and P SL20 shot up by 26.2 points. Turnover stood at Rs 4.3 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in DPPL Holdings, which crossed 9.2 million shares to the tune of Rs 208 million and its shares traded at Rs 22.60 and JAT Holdings one million shares crossed for Rs 24 million; its shares traded at Rs 24.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Expolanka Holdings Rs 586 million (2.9 million shares traded), LOLC Holdings Rs 579 million (913,000 shares traded), Commercial Leasing and Finance Rs 450 million (10.4 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 322 million (30.7 million shares traded) and Royal Ceramic Rs 178 million (3.5 million shares traded). During the day 154 million share volumes changed hands in 35000 transactions.

The investor sentiment of the CSE improved the results of the latest LMD-Nielsen IQ Business Confidence Index (BCI) survey. It indicates that sentiment surrounding the economy improved in September as 20 percent of respondents anticipate an improvement in the next 12 months – up from a mere 6 percent in the previous month. When it comes to Sri Lanka, a US $ 3.6 billion loan from Oman and Qatar to purchase/import Brent crude oil gave some relief to investors. This would assist to cushion the pressure to some extent, stock market analysts said.

Yesterday, the Sri Lanka rupee was quoted at Rs 200.11 against the US dollar. This is in keeping with the Central Bank controlled price.