ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka stocks closed 0.6 percent stronger on Thursday despite high volatility seen in the market, brokers said.
“It was a volatile market with lots of ups and downs because it came out of the negative trend,” Dimantha Mathew, Chief Research and Strategy Officer at First Capital Holdings PLC, told EconomyNext.
“Some of the results, and lots of funds coming into the stock market has contributed to the rise of the indices.”
The ASPI closed up 0.57 percent, or 94.53 points, at 16,550.63; while the more liquid S&P SL20 Index closed up 0.52 percent, or 25.25 points, at 4,923.29.
Buying interest during mid morning trade drove the indices up after an initial steep drop.
“A bit of buying interest came in and selling pressure was absorbed,” Mathew said.
“There was significant investor interest in the construction (1 billion rupees) and finance sectors (643 million).”
“Interest in the finance sector was seen following the release of quarterly results.”
Sierra Cables closed 2.5 percent stronger at 16.20, Royal Ceramics Lanka ended up 0.3 percent to 39.00 and LOLC Holdings was up 0.2 percent to 689.00.
Top contributors to the ASPI were Sampath Bank (ended 1.3 percent stronger at 116.50), DFCC Bank (rose 2.3 to 124.75), CT Holdings (up 3.5 percent at 341.50), John Keells (closed up 0.9 percent at 22.20) and Seylan Bank (rose 4.4 percent at 81.50).
There was also investor interest in the banks (1.3 billion rupees) and food beverages and tobacco (902 million rupees) industries in the session.
Commercial Bank ended 0.5 percent stronger at 143.00, NDB rose 0.6 to 120.00 and Ceylon Beverage Holdings was up 1.5 percent at 2,770.00.
“Some level of renewed interest in the market can be seen from selected investors. Specially with the falling interest rates,” Mathew said.
Most active volumes were seen in Brown Investments at 49,156,444 (turnover 423,183,791.10 rupees), Amana Bank at 16,577,088 (turnover 414,429,389.40 rupees), Access Engineering at 8,388,794 (turnover 350,886,429.40 rupees) and LOLC Finance at 6,397,443 (turnover 41,445,643.70 rupees).
Turnover was 5.18 billion rupees, while the share volume rose percent 27 to 177,140,997.
Continuing the downward trend, a net foreign outflow of 126 million rupees for the day was recorded.(Colombo/Feb06/2025)
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