Locals chase telecom sector shares

Channa KASTURISINGHE

BOURSE: The market moved up remarkably yesterday mainly due to locals who showed interest in the telecom sector.

Contributing to the bulk of the turnover, over 4.6 million Dialog and 4.7 million Sri Lanka Telecom shares traded yesterday and brokers said both high net worth and retail local investors had their eyes on the telecom sector.

Local interest in the diversified blue chip John Keells Holdings (JKH) was also high with over 1.1 million shares being traded.

Heavy buying interest into blue chips resulted in the Milanka Price Index (MPI) moving up by an impressive 3.59 percent and the All Share Price Index (ASPI) too rose sharply by 2.47 percent.

The ASPI closed at 2,777.73 points gaining almost 67 points and the MPI gained 131 points to close at 3,785.92 points.

The sharp upward movement of the indices helped the market capitalization to increase by over Rs. 20 billion to reach Rs. 851 billion at the close. Yesterday's turnover was also very healthy reaching Rs. 1.04 billion.

Reflecting the growing local and foreign interest, Dialog share price continued to move up and yesterday it reached a high of Rs.28 before closing at Rs.27.75 which was an increase of Rs.2.25 compared to the previous day. SLT share price also increased to Rs. 29.

S. Umasudhan of SC Securities told the Daily News that the growth potential of the country's telecom sector coupled with strong financial performance of the two listed companies has attracted the attention of both local and foreign investor.

Manjula Kumarasinghe of Asha Phillip Securities said that the active participation of retail investors was an encouraging sign as the market was mainly driven by foreign investors during the past few weeks.

The sharp upward movement of the indices helped the market capitalization to increase by over Rs. 20 billion to reach Rs. 851 billion at the close. Yesterday's turnover was also very healthy reaching Rs. 1.04 billion.

JKH too contributed to the high turnover level yesterday and market sources said there was considerable foreign selling of the share.

There were rumours that Gold Quest which had been buying heavily into to the stock was selling in smaller quantities which were picked up by some locals.

The share was up by Rs.1 to close at Rs.191. Yesterday's net foreign outflow was about Rs. 230 million.