Purchase of Expolanka Holdings shares by parent company boosts bourse

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The CSE’s year-to-date net foreign inflow surpassed the Rs. 29 billion mark yesterday with continued purchase of Expolanka Holdings shares by its parent SG Holdings of Japan.

Apart from this silver lining, the Colombo bourse remained negative owing to lacklustre interest from locals. Sri Lanka’s US $2.9 billion IMF bailout issue from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to go beyond January 2023, State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe said and this has prompted a negative outlook on the part of local investors.

Semasinghe assured, however, that maximum efforts are underway to receive the Board’s approval in the first quarter of 2023. Accordingly, both indices moved downwards. The All- Share Price Index went down by 88.27 points and S and P SL20 declined by 33.04 points. Turnover stood at Rs 4.6 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in Expolanka Holdings, which crossed 13.7 million shares to the tune of Rs 2.8 billion and its shares traded at Rs 210 and Lanka IOC 534,000 shares crossed to the tune of Rs 106.8 million, its shares traded at Rs 200.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, Expolanka Holdings Rs 566 million (2.8 million shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 471 million (2.3 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 97.7 million (14.7 million shares traded), First Capital Holdings Rs 82.1 million (3.1 million shares traded), JKH Rs 38 million (272,000 shares traded), LOLC Finance Rs 26.4 million (3.5 million shares traded) and First Capital Treasuries Rs 26.6 million (1.2 million shares traded). During the day 68.4 million share volumes changed hands in 14000 transactions.

It is said high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in Expolanka Holdings, John Keells Holdings and Lanka IOC. Mixed interest was observed in First Capital Holdings, Softlogic Life Insurance and CIC Holdings, while retail interest was noted in Browns Investments, Softlogic Capital and Industrial Asphalts.

The Transportation sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to Expolanka Holdings) while the sector index lost 0.60 per cent. The share price of Expolanka Holdings decreased by Rs. 1.25 (0.60%) to close at Rs. 205.50.

The Energy sector was the second highest contributor to the market turnover (due to Lanka IOC), while the sector index decreased by 5.32 per cent. The share price of Lanka IOC lost Rs. 12.50 (5.69 per cent) to close at Rs. 207.

Sri Lanka’s authorities have said a domestic debt restructure would endanger banks that have already suffered a hit on their capital.

Amid those developments Nation Lanka Finance PLC obtained Central Bank approval for an amalgamation with Kanrich Finance, which is a CSE unlisted entity in the stock market. With the amalgamation, the surviving entity would be Nation Lanka Finance.

Yesterday, the Central Bank- announced US dollar exchange rate was recorded as Rs 371.77.