The Colombo bourse ASPI touched the 8,000 mark again after six days of down trend amidst mixed investor interest on bargain hunting.
Thus, All-Share Price Index increased by 223.4 points (+2.9%) to close at 8,000.4 for the day whilst S& P SL20 Index also gained by 98.3 points (+4.2%) to close at 2,464.9. Expolanka Holdings, Lanka IOC, Ceylinco Insurance, Carsons Cumberbatch and Melstacorp remained as the top positive contributors to the ASPI during the day.
Further, the broader market’s total turnover stood at Rs. 1,506.2 mn against the 12-month average daily turnover of Rs. 3,712.8 mn, whilst the volume traded for the day was 44,941.8k against the 12-month average daily volume of 192,036.8k.174,379.7k. Transportation, BanksCapital Goods, Banks and Diversified Financials mostly contributed to yesterday’s turnover.
The top turnover generators for yesterday were Lanka IOC Rs. 357.2 mn (+13.0%), Expolanka Holdings Rs. 157.8 mn (+11.5), Lankem Developments Rs. 112.1 mn (+21.3%), Sunshine Holdings Rs.212.4 mn (+3.4%) and Ceylinco Insurance Rs.69.7 mn (+7.5%). Foreigners recorded a net inflow of Rs.116.7 mn for the week. Foreign purchases stood at Rs. 174.9 mn whilst total foreign sales amounted to Rs.58.2 mn. Top foreign buying counters SUN LKR. 110.0 mn, DIAL LKR. 36.6 mn, LIOC LKR. 16.3 mn, BALA LKR. 0.8 mn, ACL LKR. 0.7 mn and LMF LKR. 0.7 mn whilst top foreign selling counters were LDEV LKR. (30.5) mn, RICH LKR. (18.7) mn, BFL LKR. (1.1) mn, EXPO LKR. (0.6) mn, LOLC LKR. (0.2) mn and COMD LKR. (0.1) mn. Further, off-board transactions were witnessed in Sunshine Holdings (Rs.109.9 mn), John Keells Holdings (Rs.34.8 mn) and Commercial Bank (Rs.32.6 mn) yesterday.
Additionally, SMB Leasing (Non-Voting), Lankem Development, Hatton Plantations, Hapugastenne Plantations and Horana Plantations were the top price gainers yesterday whilst Senkadagala Finance, Samson International, Browns Hydro Power, The Autodrome and Ascot Holdings were the top price losers. Further, Browns Investments, Dialog Axiata, Lankem Developments, Sunshine Holdings and Lanka IOC were among the most actively traded stocks yesterday. Meanwhile, Exterminators PLC announced a dividend of Rs.0.20 and Office Equipment PLC announced a dividend of Rs.0.10 for FY23.