Three regional telecom players show interest in SLT shares as latter appreciate

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

SLT shares in the stock market were active and tended to appreciate yesterday as three regional telecom players came out with Requests for Quotes to invest in the company. These developments are a part of the government’s strategy to divest State-Owned- Enterprises, analysts said.

Three investors have expressed interest in buying Sri Lanka Telecom shares to the island’s State-Owned Enterprises Restructuring Unit and those entities are: Jio Platforms Ltd, Gujarat, India, Gortune International Investment Holding Ltd, submitted by Capital Alliance Limited and Pettigo Comercio International LDA, submitted by NDB Investment Bank Ltd. Jio Platforms is a unit of Reliance Industries headed Mukesh Ambani and Pettigo is part of the Lycamobile Group headed by Allirajah Subashkaran in UK.

The proposals will be evaluated under Special Guidelines on Divestiture of State-Owned Enterprises approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in July 2023.

The share market reflected a degree of dullness because investors are worried that upcoming earnings would create some negative pressure on the market. Both indices moved downwards. The All- Share Price Index went down by 65.3 points while S and P SL20 declined by 19.16 points.

Turnover stood Rs 1.5 billion with four crossings. Those crossing were reported in Ceylinco Insurance, where 813,000 shares (Non-Voting) crossed to the tune of Rs 634 million; its shares traded at Rs 7.80, Melstacope’s 2.4 million shares crossed for Rs 211 million; shares traded at Rs 85, Hemas Holdings 750,000 shares crossed for Rs 51.7 million; its shares traded at Rs 69 and Marawila Resort 6.5 million shares crossed for Rs 21.4 million; its shares traded at Rs 3.30.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, Ceylinco Insurance (Non- Voting) Rs 133 million (170,000 shares traded), Capital Alliance Rs 62.8 million (1.1 million shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 38.6 million (379,000 shares traded), JKH Rs 37.2 million (199,000 shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 36.6 million (8.1 million shares traded), Commercial Bank Rs 33.3 million (365,000 shares traded) and SLT Rs 27.2 million (281,000 shares traded). During the day 37.6 million share volumes changed hands in 7600 share transactions.

Yesterday, the US dollar buying rate was Rs 317.35 and selling rate Rs 327.18.