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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Continuous buying pushes net foreign inflow to over Rs. 20 b

Continuous foreign buying in to select listed companies saw the year to date net inflow top the Rs. 20 billion mark by yesterday.

The Colombo stock market began a fresh week with year to date net inflowing being at Rs. 17.7 billion and a further Rs. 2.5 billion was added bringing the total to Rs. 20.2 billion, Arrenga Capital said.

The inflow yesterday was as a result of a foreign fund picking up 5.1% stake or 20.5 million shares in business tycoon controlled Aitken Spence for Rs. 2.35 billion from EPF.

This boosted foreign buying overall to Rs. 2.75 billion with selling amounting to only Rs. 216.5 million.

Owing to Rs. 14.5 billion of foreign buying, the Friday’s star JKH saw fresh interest with a block of 1.5 million shares done at Rs. 200 each, up by Rs. 4.90 from its previous close. Foreign shareholding in JKH rose by a further 0.75 million to 417 million.

Deal on Spence originally boosted investor sentiments but as the day progressed midst shivers over plunging rupee, the stock price indices lost momentum.

Arrenga Capital said the market continued to depict a volatile behaviour amidst continued strong foreign inflows, clearly indicating the lack of confidence from the local investor calibre.

“The overall lack of confidence could be related to the prevalent macroeconomic uncertainties including a depreciating rupee as it touched a further all time low of LKR130.0/USD,” it added.

The ASI initiated trading touching a high of 5,485.8 points, but could not retain the momentum as it closed flat at 5,449.5 points, yet remained in the positive territory during most of the trading hours. On the contrary, the liquid MPI showed a gradual upward trend amidst gains made in few heavyweights, thus closing up at 4,889.1 points.

Apart from Spence and JKH, banking sector player, National Development Bank also saw a single block of 509,500 shares being crossed off at Rs. 123 per share, before closing at Rs. 120.5 with a 1.6% drop. Commercial Bank of Ceylon, continued with interest as the counter registered several large on board transactions, whilst similar interest was evident in Vallibel One. Meanwhile, Ceylon Tobacco continued to see block trades as the counter recorded a single parcel carrying 50,000 shares being dealt at Rs. 510 per share, trading at a 52 – week high.

source - www.ft.lk