Market enters into positive territory after three months

The Colombo bourse regained some lost ground after witnessing heavy losses last week, on concerns over struggling global markets.

The indices got off to a positive start on Monday while remained somewhat volatile during the week before ending modestly higher week on week helped by some bargain hunting on stocks which had fallen to their lowest in more than one or two years.

Hence at week's close the ASPI (All Share Price Index) gained a moderate 74.1 points or 3.9% to 1998.8 points while, the more liquid MPI (Milanka Price Index) edged up by a larger 110.5 points or 5.2% to CLOSE at 2235.9 points.

Continuous heavy trading throughout the week was witnessed on JKH, which accounted for a substantial proportion of 26.5% of the week's turnover. The high cap stock saw almost 1.52 million of its shares changing hands during the week within a wide price band of Rs.72.50 and Rs.78.00 per share resulting in the stock contributing Rs.113.1 million towards the weekly turnover. However the share price of JKH continued to plunge to settle 3.7% lower WoW at Rs.72.50 per share.

Renewed interest on Asiri drove up market activity levels by Rs.30.9 million to stand as the 2nd largest contributed stock for the week. The stock having fluctuated within a price range of Rs.50.00 & Rs.55.00 closed a notable 9.0% higher at Rs.55.00 per share. The major trade on the counter came on Wednesday which, pushed up the overall trade volume of the counter to 0.56 million shares.

Interest continued on Maskeliya as the counter contributed Rs.26.1 million to the week's turnover.

The plantation counter saw its price appreciating by an impressive 8.1% by Friday to close the week at Rs.26.75 per share after being traded between the prices of Rs.24.50 and Rs.30.00 per share for the week. Approximately 0.96 million of Maskeliya shares traded for the week.

Banking stock, NTB managed a turnover of Rs.19.2 million for the week. Counter on Monday witnessed majority of its trading taking place, reflecting 91.1% of total NTB turnover for the week. Meanwhile the NTB share closed Rs.1.75 higher at Rs.26.50 after peaking at Rs.28.25 per share during the week.

Despite stocks gaining ground WoW (Week On Week) after almost three months, the overall activity level remained subdued as investors cautiously awaited third quarter earnings. Thus total turnover during the 4-day trading week stood 53.6% below last week's Rs.920.5 million at Rs.427.2 million while the average daily turnover amounted to Rs.106.8 million, down by 42%.

This week foreign investors remained net sellers with a total net outflow of a marginal Rs.9.4 million. Foreign purchases and foreign sales stood at\ Rs.102.8 million and Rs.112.2 million witnessing a WoW decline of 54.8% and 23.0 % respectively. Foreign participation this week increased slightly to 25.2% of total activity compared to 20.3% of last week

Highly traded stocks during the week were Seylan Merchant (Non Voting), JKH,

Market entered into positive territory after almost 3 months despite thin volumes in the back of cautious trading. For yet another week Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) followed the patterns of global markets experiencing heavy volatility indices.

All Share Price Index (ASPI) gained 3.9% for the week compared to last week's closing levels.

More swings in indices are likely in the coming weeks as global equity markets are expected to remain volatile in the back of recession fears and continuous efforts by the governments around the world to stimulate the markets. Thus we advise investors to cautiously capitalize on the possible trading opportunities amidst volatility while searching for bargain hunting prospects.

"This information has been compiled from sources that we believe to be reliable but we do not hold ourselves responsible for its completeness or accuracy.

No matter published herein create any liability of any kind of HNB Stockbrokers (Private) Limited or its associates. All opinions views findings and conclusions included in this report constitute our judgment of this date and are subject to change without notice.