Bargain hunters give a boost to indices

The market ended on a higher note for the week driven by substantial gains made during the 1st 3 trading days amidst presence of bargain hunters in the market place.

Nevertheless on Thursday and Friday market suffered losses, tracking the performance of other global and regional stock markets.

At week’s close the ASPI gained by 68.9 points or 3.8% to close at 1890.4 points while the more sensitive Milanka Price Index (MPI) climbed up by a much greater 87.1 points or 4.3% to close the week 2124.7 points

JKH for the second successive week managed to become the largest contributor towards weekly activity, though the turnover this week being little less than half the amount witnessed last week.

JKH this week contributed Rs.126.2 million towards market turnover with a significant Rs.179.6 million turnover occurring on Monday alone.

The Counter traded within a wide range of Rs.64.00 and Rs.74.75 per share with price appreciating by a modest 7% WoW (Week On Week) to close at Rs.69.00 per share. During the week 1.9million JKH shares changed hands.

A quantity of 2 million Distilleries shares exchanged on Friday, which amounted to a turnover value of Rs.106.6 million, while in total the counter contributed Rs.112.3 million towards the week’s turnover. The share price of Distilleries gained 5.3% during the week to close at Rs.55.00 per share.

During the 5 trading days 2.1 million Distilleries shares traded within a price range of Rs.54 and Rs.59.50 per share.

Chevron surged 8.0% or Rs.7.25 WoW to close at Rs.100.50 per share, whilst trading a volume of 0.23 million shares on a price range of Rs.95 and Rs.105 per share during the week. The stock, with a total turnover of Rs.23.8 million became the third largest contributor for the week.

AEC this week was among the top contributors with bulk of its turnover coming on Monday’s trading.

The total AEC turnover for the week stood at Rs.21.7 million with 0.01 million shares trading at an unchanged price of Rs.1800.

Bargain hunting was witnessed on the banking stock Commercial that leads to a contribution of Rs16.0 million for the week. The share price of Commercial Bank fluctuated between the prices of Rs.87.00 and Rs.99.00 while ending 12% higher WoW at Rs.94 per share on Friday.

Total market turnover for the week stood at 665.2 million, showing a WoW decline of 19.1% while the average daily turnover for the week amounted to Rs.133.04 million.

Foreign investors ended net buyers for the week, after three weeks of net selling.

Although both foreign purchases and sales came down for the week, foreign sales fell at a faster rate of 82.6% to Rs.59.1 million while foreign purchases showed only a modest 18.7% dip to Rs.132.7 million, resulting in a net foreign inflow of Rs.73.6 million for the week.

Foreign participation during the week was at 14.4%.

Nawaloka, Sierra Cables, Distilleries and JKH were the highest traded stocks during the week.

Indices to continue on its roller coaster ride

Indices continued to remain volatile with investors remaining on the sidelines.

Overall the All Share Price Index (ASPI) gained by 68.9 points while the Milanka Price Index (MPI) notched up 87.1 points compared to last week’s closing level.

“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.