Bourse witnesses profit taking yesterday

Colombo bourse witnessed profit taking yesterday after recording a positive run for past four consecutive days.

Thus, the All-Share Price Index decreased by 40.4 points (-0.5%) to close at 8,417.2 whilst S&;P SL20 Index also declined by 14.3 points (-0.5%) to close at 2,795.5. Browns Investments, John Keells Holdings Carsons Cumberbatch, Piramal Glass, and Amana Bank remained as the top negative contributors to the ASPI during the day. Further, broader market’s total turnover stood at Rs. 3,496.0 mn against the 12-month average daily turnover of Rs. 4,679.1 million, whilst the volume traded for the day was 268,043.4k against the 12-month average daily volume of 225,491.8k. Capital Goods, Food and Beverage and Transportation mostly contributed to yesterday’s turnover.

The top turnover generators for yesterday were Expolanka Holdings Rs. 1,100.6 million (-0.1%), Browns Investments Rs.584.8 mn (+5.1%), LOLC Finance Rs.527.3 mn (-1.0%), Softlogic Life Insurance Rs.169.1 mn (-9.9%) and Softlogic Capital Rs. 144.9 million (-1.2%). Foreigners recorded a net inflow of Rs. 8.5 million yesterday. Foreign purchases stood at Rs. 58.5 million whilst total foreign sales amounted to Rs. 49.9 million.

Top foreign buying MELS Rs. 17.8 million, HHL Ra. 6.6 million, JKH Rs. 5 million, SUN Rs. 3.4 million, ASCO Rs. 2.6 million and HAYL Rs. 1.3 million whilst top foreign selling counters RCL Rs. (9.6) million, HNB LKR. (8.8) mn, LOLC LKR. (2.8) million, ACL LKR. (1.7) million, RIL Rs. (1.6) mn and TILE Rs. (1.6) million. Further, no off-board transactions were witnessed yesterday.

Additionally, Amana Takaful Life, Ceylon Beverage Hold., LOLC Development Finance, The Autodrome and Hapugastenne Plantations were the top price gainers yesterday whilst Blue Diamonds (Non-Voting), Good Hope, Amana Takaful, HNB Finance and Singer Industries were the top price losers. Further, Browns Investments, SMB Leasing (Voting and Non-Voting), LOLC Finance, Softlogic Capital and Expolanka Holdings were amongst the most actively traded stocks yesterday.