Bourse witnesses profit taking with appointment of new President

Sri Lanka’s parliament elected the government-backed candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe as the 8th Executive President on Wednesday (20) with 134 lawmakers in the 225-member parliament voting in favour. The new vote came after the former leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned last week from Singapore.

The country hence fell into a further political crisis after months-long protests against him whilst being also hit by a great economic crisis leading the country into a deeper recession amidst shortages in major essential commodities such as fuel, medicine and certain food items. Moreover, other candidates Dullas Alhahepperuma got 82 votes and Anura Kumara Dissanayake got three votes during the poll.

Thus, The All-Share Price Index gained over 100 points during the first half an hour of trading and gradually settled the day by increasing 67.9 points (+0.9%) to close at 7,712.1 for the day whilst S& P SL20 Index also gained by 18.4 points (+0.7%) to close at 2,477.8.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Treasury bill yields were at 3 months 31.50%, 6 months 29.97% and one year 29.82% at the auction yesterday.

Sampath Bank, Hatton National Bank, Hayleys, Commercial Bank and DFCC Bank remained as the top positive contributors to the ASPI during the day. Further, the broader market’s total turnover stood at Rs.1,339.9 mn against the 12-month average daily turnover of Rs. 4,513.8 mn, whilst the volume traded for the day was 82,715.8k against the 12-month average daily volume of 220,382.1k. Banks and Capital Goods mostly contributed to Yesterday’s turnover.

The top turnover generators for yesterday were Melstacorp Rs.209.1 mn (+2.3%), Browns Investments Rs. 174.4 mn (+1.3%), John Keells Holdings Rs.175.8 mn (-0.8%), Expolanka Holdings Rs.113.5 mn (+0.1%) and Lanka IOC Rs. 65.9 mn (+0.9%).

Foreigners recorded a very negligible net inflow of Rs. 0.2 mn yesterday. Foreign purchases stood at Rs.220.0 mn whilst total foreign sales amounted to Rs. 219.8 mn. Top foreign buying counters ASIY LKR. 2.6 mn, RICH LKR. 2.3 mn, MELS LKR. 0.9 mn, ASCO LKR. 0.8 mn, HAYL LKR. 0.5 mn and EXPO LKR. 0.5 mn whilst top foreign selling counters were AAIC LKR. (3.2) mn, HNB LKR. (1.3) mn, LWL LKR. (0.8) mn, CCS LKR. (0.8) mn, AGST LKR. (0.7) mn and BIL LKR. (0.7) mn. Further, off-board transactions were witnessed in Melstacorp (Rs.190.3 mn) and Melstacorp (Rs.169.4 mn) yesterday.

Additionally, Softlogic Life Insurance, Melstacorp, Kotagala Plantations, Hayleys and Sunshine Holdings were the top price gainers yesterday whilst Industrial Asphalts, Mercantile Shipping, The Nuwara Eliya Hotels, Royal Palms Beach Hotel and Malwatte Valley Plantations were the top price losers. Further, Browns Investments, SMB Leasing (Non-Voting), Kotagala Plantations, Softlogic Capital and Melstacorp were amongst the most actively traded stocks yesterday.