Share subdivision in Dhammika Perera-owned companies improves business sentiment

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

The subdivision of shares of three companies belonging to top business magnate Dhammika Perera, namely, Lanka Wall Tiles, Lanka Tiles and Swisstech on a one share to five basis improved investor sentiment in the share market yesterday, stock market analysts said.  

Both main CSE indices moved upwards. The All Share Price Index reached the 7200 mark. All Share Price Index was up by 74.25 points and S and P SL20 up by 24.47 points.

Turnover stood at Rs. 1.54 billion with a single crossing. The crossing took place in JKH, which crossed 200,000 shares to the tune of Rs. 30 million, its shares traded at Rs. 150.

In the retail market, five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were;  Browns Investments Rs. 161 million (28.4 million shares traded), CTC Rs. 139.7 million (143,000 shares traded), JKH Rs. 133 million (890,000 shares traded), Expolanka Rs. 123.2 million (2.7 million shares traded)  and LOLC Rs. 105.4  million (352,000 shares traded). During the day 86.3 million share volumes changed hands in 14270 transactions.

 Sri Lanka’s rupee quoted at 200/201.75 to the one week dollar in mid morning trade Thursday, while yields were unchanged, dealers said.

The rupee last closed in the one-week forward market at 199.75/201 to the US dollar on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, CSE said in a press release:

‘The WindForce Limited Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Rs.3.2 Bn, the largest IPO announced at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) since 2011, has attracted applications amounting to a value of Rs 25.7 Bn, demonstrating the strong appetite for IPOs among investors in the Sri Lankan stock market. The company’s IPO for 202,615,341 shares at an issue price of Rs.16.00 per share was oversubscribed by 8 times on the initial day.

‘WindForce Limited is scheduled to commence trading on the Main Board of the CSE during latter part of April 2021. The listing application of the company was approved by the CSE within a record time of 3 weeks, in-line with CSE’s recent revamp of the listing process to better serve the funding requirements of companies listing on the stock exchange. The initiative has simplified the process, eliminated redundant approval steps, moved away from a dual approval process, reduced documentation and improved the time- to-market for new and follow-on offerings of equity and debt.’