Foreigners net sellers

Market in the red:

The week continues in downward momentum indicating significant reduction in sector indices. ASPI declined by 114.93 points showing a drop down of 1.76 percent to 6432.75.

MPI followed by a 2.41 percent decrease losing 170 points to close at 6885.45. The bourse aggregate turnover was Rs 9.3 billion showing a decline of 36 percent against last week.

The volume of turnover for the week indicated at 617 million demonstrating a decline of 48 percent against previous week.

Market capitalization recorded 2138 billion and Market Price Earning Ratio was at 24.3.

Bank and Finance Sector recorded the highest contribution in the market in terms of value and volume.

The sector turnover value contribution was at 23.78 percent and turnover (volume) contribution was at 48.15 percent.

Manufacturing sector added 17.62 percent of market turnover in the bourse followed by 13.98 percent contribution by Power and Energy sector.

Foreigners were net sellers this week, with total sales amounting to Rs 1.8 billion, a visible increase of 80 percent week on week, while foreign buying was Rs 991 million.

The week's top gainer was Huejay with 36.9 percent price rise and the counter closed at Rs 57.50.

Amongst other price gainers were Blue, Nation Lanka and Piramal with price rise of 17.6 percent, 17.4 percent and 16.6 percent respectively. United Motors at Rs 107.10 was the major loser for the week which was down by 50 percent.

The other major losers were Selinsing and Autodrome where price slipped by 34 percent and 26 percent.

Lanka Hospitals accounted for 11.65 percent of total turnover this week, bringing in Rs 1.08 billion to the market with 35 million shares changing hands.

The share closed at Rs 31, down by 1.3 percent from last week. Laugfs which opened trading on the 8th surged ahead to sell more than 36 million shares accounting for Rs 961.8 million or over 10 percent of this week's turnover.

JKH placed third with Rs 930 million in turnover with the scrip closing at Rs 290. The most traded stock during the week was Piramal Glass with 70 million shares changing hands to close at Rs 7.70, up by nearly 17 percent from last week's close.

SMB Leasing also traded 50 million shares while Laugfs placed third with its 36 million shares. Laugfs closed the week at Rs 25.40.

Point of view

Investors continued to remain on the side lines as the bourse lost steam this week, with the indices losing consistently.

We expect the market to continue this trend during the week ahead with interest in selected counters and fundamentally strong stocks to persist.