SLI divestiture attracts five businesses; interest grows for Life and General Insurance segments

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

CSE trading activities were bullish yesterday, same as last week, especially among retail investors, due to multiple positive factors, such as, easing of monetary policies and IMF’s optimism on Sri Lanka’s economic progress.

Further, where the Sri Lanka Insurance divestiture is concerned, five entities have qualified for Request for Statement of Qualifications for SLI’s two sectors, namely, Life and General Insurance.

For the Life segment, LIC Lanka Limited, Union Assurance and Asiri Hospitals, have become potential investors, while for General Insurance, Euro Exim Bank and Fair First Insurance are potential investors. Besides, retail investor participation had a positive impact on the market.

Amid those developments both indices moved upwards. The All Share Price Index went up by 89.68 points while S and P SL20 rose by 29.5 points. Turnover stood at Rs 1.95 billion with one crossing. The crossing was reported in Lanka IOC, which crossed 250,000 shares to the tune of Rs 28 million and its shares traded at Rs 112.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Browns Investments Rs 190 million (33.3 million shares traded), LOLC Finance Rs 158 million (28.7 million shares traded), Union Assurance Rs 114 million (2.1 million shares traded), LMF Rs 76.6 million (2.7 million shares traded), Lanka Wall Tiles Rs 70.4 million (1.3 million shares traded), LOLC Rs 66.3 million (161,000 shares traded) and Softlogic Company Rs 56.6 million (8.1 million shares traded). During the day 151 million share volumes changed hands in 22800 transactions.

The rupee opened stronger at Rs 307.00/20 to the US dollar in the spot forex market, stronger from Rs 307.30/40 last Thursday, dealers said, while bond yields were slightly up.

A bond maturing on 01.08.2026 was quoted at 10.90/11.00 percent from 10.85/11.00 percent. A bond maturing on 15.09.2027 was quoted stable at 12.00/10 percent. A bond maturing on 01.07.2028 was quoted at 12.20/35 percent from 12.20/40 percent.