Stock trading at healthy levels upon news from Barclays Bank on SL economy

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

Share trading activities at the CSE were mostly positive while illiquid shares traded relatively lower than on previous days. One of the reasons for the market to be positive was that a recent report released by UK based Barclays Bank which has revised its negative stance on the Sri Lankan economy and recommended investing in its sovereign bonds, stock market analysts said.

Latest report has highlighted that Sri Lankan banks are holding sovereign bonds worth of US $ 300 million in the upcoming sovereign bond repayment of USD one billion. Once the government makes the settlement of USD one billion on sovereign bonds, that US $ 300 million held by local banks will come back to Sri Lanka. Therefore the net outflow would be around US $ 700 million, which is some positive news for investors, stock market analysts said.

Amid those developments, the both indices  were positive. All Share Price Index was up by 28.6 points and S&P SL20 up by 10 points. Turnover stood at Rs 1.36 billion with a single crossing.  The crossing was reported in Lanka Milk Food, which crossed 200,000 shares to the tune of Rs 34 million and its share price traded at Rs 170.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were JKH Rs 271 million (2.1 million shares traded), LOLC Rs 181.5 million (452,000 shares traded), WIndforce Rs 62.2 million (3.3 million shares traded), People’s Leasing Rs 55.4 million  (4.32 million shares traded) and Commercial Bank Rs 48 million (556,000 shares traded). During the 55.9 billion share volume changed hands in 14,624 transactions.

Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth 235.2 million rupees, exchange data showed. The equity market’s turnover was Rs 1.35 billion, according to exchange data.