Sri Lanka bourse down on retail selling, liquidity concerns
* Rupee steady amid heavy importer demandCOLOMBO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka’s stock market fell to
a 15-week low on Friday on retail selling with turnover and
volumes slumping due to low investor participation amid a
liquidity crunch, while foreign investors again bought
heavyweight John Keells Holdings .The island nation’s main share index closed 0.55
percent or 36.08 points down at 6,549.91, lowest since June 27.
It is Asia’s fifth-best performer with a year-to-date loss of
1.3 percent after being on the top for most of 2011.Foreign investors bought over 418,000 shares in conglomerate
and institutional favourite Keells, bringing total foreign
buying over the last four sessions to nearly 4 million shares,
bourse data showed. Keells lost 0.4 percent on Friday.Offshore investors also offloaded 600,000 shares in
Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka , which closed
steady.The bourse witnessed a net foreign outflow of 37.5 million
rupees on Friday, after a total inflow of 650.1 million in the
previous four sessions. Thus far in 2011, offshore investors
have sold 16.7 billion, and sold a record 26.4 billion in 2010.”The market is still falling as it had risen mainly due to a
lot of speculative shares,” said a stockbroker on condition of
anonymity. “Now those shares are coming down after some punters
took the shares up and dumped at high prices.”Losers outperformed gainers by 133 to 65 on Friday, Thomson
Reuters data showed.Turnover was at 992.6 million rupees ($9 million), its
lowest since July 5 and less than last year’s average of 2.4
billion and this year’s 2.6 billion.Friday’s total volume was 50.7 million, lowest since
Sept.23, against a five-day average of 67.2 million. The 30-day
and 90-day average trading volumes were 146.1 million and 135.3
million. Last year’s daily average was 67.9 million.The rupee closed steady at 110.18/20 a
dollar for a 11th straight day, as a state bank continued dollar
sales at 110.20 rupees in spite of heavy importer dollar demand,
dealers said.FACTORS TO WATCH:
- If central bank can maintain a narrow dollar trading range
- How much the central bank buys in repo auctions
- Rupee depreciation due to heavy importer dollar demandDATAColombo Stock Exchange:Stock Market Volume (Shares)Current Volume Average Volume 30 Days50,697,241 146,110,413Yield and Price of Sri Lanka’s sovereign bonds:Maturing year Tenure amount Reuters yield2012 5-yr $500 mln 5.676-5.1732014 5-yr $500 mln 5.868-5.5372020 10-yr $1,000 mln 6.5859-6.43522021 10-yr $1,000 mln 6.5769-6.4355* For Sri Lankan treasury securities benchmarks and data,
please click and* For interbank lending rate or call money rate or* For secondary market rates, please see <0#LKBMK=>.
($1 = 110.200 Sri Lanka Rupees)
