President’s comments on debt moratorium enliven share market

By Hiran H. Senewiratne

President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s positive comments yesterday in parliament, especially on the external debt restructuring exercise, where the government is to request a debt moratorium from bondholders, created a positive sentiment in the stock market.

“The government hopes to avoid repaying debt till December 2027 under restructuring talks underway and repay them in the period running up to 2042, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said.

“We are in discussions to restructure all debt, including foreign debt. We hope to end these discussions in the near future, President Wickremesinghe told parliament yesterday.

Sri Lanka had a foreign debt service of US$ 6 billion a year in 2022 or about 9.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Accordingly, both indices moved upwards. The All Share Price Index went up by 40.1 points while S and P SL20 rose by 14.8 points. Turnover stood at Rs 2.29 billion with four crossings.

Those crossings were reported in LOLC Finance, which crossed 200 million shares at Rs 5 each to the tune of Rs 1 billion, Lion Brewery 43,000 shares crossed for Rs 41 million at Rs 9.50 each, Tokyo Cement 474,000 shares crossed to the tune of Rs 25.1 million; its shares traded at Rs 53 and Access Engineering 1 million shares crossed for Rs 21.5 million and its shares sold at Rs 21.50.

In the retail market to top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; LMF Rs 151 million (5.7 million shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 84 million (759,000 shares traded), Chevron Lubricants Rs 61.2 million (583,000 shares traded), Hayley’s Fabrics Rs 58.8 million (1.4 million shares traded), LOLC Finance Rs 35.6 million (7.5 million shares traded) and Royal Ceremic Rs 32.3 million (1 million shares traded). During the day 263 million share volumes changed hands in 14400 transactions.Yesterday, the US dollar buying rate was Rs 302.97 and selling rate Rs 312.60.