Tourism sector stocks bouncing back as SL sees uptick in inbound travel

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

Tourism sector counters were more active yesterday compared to other sectors as tourist arrivals have been showing an increasing trend, stock market analysts said.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were Hayleys Leisure Rs 112 million (4.3 million shares traded). And JKH Rs 64.9 million (341,000 shares traded),

Meanwhile, Lanka IOC Rs 44.5 million (371,000 shares traded), Capital Alliance Rs 43 million (514,000 shares traded), Asian Hotel and Properties Rs 40.9 million (665,000 shares traded), Hayleys Plc Rs 38.1 million (405,000 shares traded) and ACL Cables Rs 37.5 million (490,000 shares traded). During the day ,40.6 million share volumes changed hands in 14,000 transactions.

Amid those developments, the stock market turned red yesterday as investors were anticipating nex taxes, namely; wealth tax, capital gain tax and several other new taxes to be introduced through the upcoming budget, market analyst said.

Accordingly both indices moved downwards. All Share Price Index down by 81.7 points and S and P SL20 down by 98.46 points. Turnover stood at Rs 1.15 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in Citizens Developments Bank crossed its 400,000 shares to the tune of Rs 78 million and its share price traded at Rs 195 and Serendip Hotels 1.5 million shares crossed to the tune of Rs 24 million and its share price traded at Rs 16.

Meanwhile, the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) announced the introduction of two significant initiatives shortly, Regulated Short Selling (RSS) through Stock Borrowing and Lending (SBL), which are aimed at enhancing trading opportunities and flexibility for investors.

In this regard, the CSE conducted an awareness session on RSS and SBL, to the institutional and high net worth individual investors and CEOs of trading participants on 8th September 2023 at Shangri-La Colombo with the participation of CSE Chairman Dilshan Wirasekara, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rajeeva Bandaranaike, CSE Chief Regulatory Officer (CRO) Renuke Wijayawardhane, Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) Deputy Director General Tushara Jayaratne and the senior management and the staff of the CSE.