Monday, January 24, 2011

Market rebounds to new heights

Colombo bourse was in an upbeat and record breaking momentum after an initial dip at the beginning of the week. ASPI gathered 221 points and ended at a record figure of 7254.01 up by 3.15 percent over the preceding week. Milanka was marginally down by 0.11 percent to close at 7292.95.

Aggregate market turnover for the week increased to Rs 15.45 billion as against Rs 15.34 billion in the earlier week with daily average of Rs 3.86 billion and Rs 3.06 billion in the respective week. Volume of turnover recorded a fall by 27 percent w-o-w. Attaining Market Capitalization at Rs 2.42 trillion was another milestone for the bourse as against the earlier high of Rs 2.35 trillion.

Across the sectors, Banking, Finance and Insurance dominated the turnover figures with 19.52 percent share amounting to Rs 3.01bn with the sector index closing at 17621.49.

Manufacturing and Diversified were other leading sectors with 12.71 percent and 10.37 percent to total market turnover with sector values at Rs 1.96 billion and Rs 1.6 billion respectively.

Banking sector was lifted by debutant listing of Singer Finance. The counters that added to Manufacturing were Sierra Cables and Piramal Glass while Hayleys, JKH and Fort Land backed the Diversified sector.

Singer Finance topped the turnover register with 11.88 percent of overall market share amounting to Rs 1.8 billion in the very first week of its listing. Laugfs made a contribution of Rs 948mn with 6.14 percent share while Environmental Resources pulled in Rs 541mn with overall share of 3.5 percent.

Sierra Cables was the most active scrip with 13 percent share in volumes aggregating to 88.97 million shares and total turnover contribution of Rs 507 million. Sierra plans to venture into the Hotels and Leisure segment and also inked MOU for supplies to Iranian Funded Rural Electrification Project. Amana held 11 percent volumes with 76.15 shares. Foreign investors closed the week as net sellers amounting to Rs 264.9 million. Foreign purchases for the week were Rs 943 million and sales of Rs 1.21 billion. However, daily average net selling week on week declined from Rs 117 million to Rs 66 million.

Indo Malay which represents the Oil Palm sector led the market as the major gainer closing the scrip at Rs 1400 highlighting a rise of 180 percent against last week.

Selinsing followed with a gain of 113 percent in comparison to last week, closing the scrip at Rs 960. Fort Land and Sinhaputhra Finance closed the week as other major gainers accounting a double digit growth of 56 percent and 40 percent respectively.

Lanka Ashok recorded a dip of 24 percent vis-a-vis last week with the scrip closing at Rs 3033.30.

Huejay recorded a decline of 18 percent in comparison with last week, closing at Rs 55.50.

Lake House Printing, Royal Palms and Watapota also reported a loss of 17 percent, 13 percent and 11 percent respectively against previous week.
Point of view

The Colombo bourse has steadily picked up during the first three weeks of 2011 rebounding from the lacklustre end to 2010 which saw the ASPI losing 7 percent from its peak in October 2010.

The market has gained momentum to reach a new high closing the week recording a year to date gain of 9.3 percent already.

We expect active retail and institutional participation to drive the market with profit taking on certain counters. More corporate earnings are expected to be released during the weeks ahead adding impetus to investor sentiment.

source - www.dailynews.lk

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