Market sees substantial gains during the week

Whilst Monday and Tuesday saw a buoyant mood in the Colombo bourse supported by substantial interest on selective key stocks, profit taking on Wednesday caused a dip in the indices, and this trend continued on Thursday, according to the weekly BMS report.

The ASPI also created history when it surpassed the 3000 point mark for the first time during trading on Monday. WoW (week on week), the ASPI accelerated 37.6 points (1.26%) to close at 3011.17 while the MPI surged 58.09 points (1.39%) to finish at 4179.28.

BMS said Sri Lanka Telecom was the highest trade volume wise for three out of the 4 trading days on the back of its healthy year end results depicting robust growth. For the week, a total of 16.33 million shares changed hands at prices between Rs.34 – Rs.38.75.

Tokyo Cement (Non-voting) witnessed 7.28 million shares traded at varying levels in the range of Rs.22.50 – Rs.26.75. Other notable trades were Vallibel Power with 6.44 million shares, Dialog with 6.41 million shares and Nawaloka with 5.05 million shares.
Monday saw a significant local to foreign crossing on DFCC where 1.72 million shares were crossed at Rs.200 contributing Rs.344 million alone.

Tuesday saw notable local to local crossings on AMW where 2.27 million shares were crossed at Rs.167 in five transactions, contributing Rs.379 million.

Turnover for the 4-day trading week stood at Rs.4,389 million reflecting a daily average of Rs.1,097 million. Highest contributors were Sri Lanka Telecom with Rs.606 million (13.8%), AMW with Rs.436.78 million (9.9%), DFCC with Rs.395.1million (8.9%), Tokyo Cement (Non-voting) with 180.28 million (4.1%) and Dialog with Rs.179.84 million (4%).

Foreigners were more prominent on the selling side, bringing the net outflow to Rs.59.27 million. They were seen mostly divesting their stakes in NDB, Sri Lanka Telecom and Dialog.

Some of the “BMS Stocks In Focus” that gained WoW were Aitken Spence which accelerated Rs.19, Kelani Cables which strengthened Rs.17, Durdans which advanced Rs.9.75, ACL Cables which gained Rs.5, Sri Lanka Telecom which moved up Rs.4.50 and Distilleries which added Rs.3. Losers included John Keells Holdings which slipped Rs.9.75, Commercial Bank which came down by Rs.3, Seylan Bank and Hemas which lost Rs.2 each.

Whilst most of the fundamental counters are yet to release their corporate results, investors are advised to capitalize on trading opportunities and collect such stocks enabling them to subsequently realize gains on further market strength, BMS said.

Hayleys’ impressive performance

Hayleys Ltd, the diversified conglomerate with business interests in Hand protection, Agri products, Transportation, Consumer products, Power & energy, Resorts, Fibre, Purification products, Plantations, Agri inputs, Industry inputs & Textiles, released its third quarter results showing impressive performance for the cumulative nine months with turnover of Rs.21.09 billion (up 22%) and a bottom line of Rs.504 million, up 31% YoY, BMS said.

The company’s transportation unit which contributed the highest to operating profits with Rs.395 million saw a decline of 34% YoY. However, the Fibre and Purification sector which saw a loss during the corresponding quarter last year made a strong comeback making 126 million each, respectively.

The Hand protection unit the second highest contributor to profit yet again performed up to expectation contributing Rs.355 million to operating profit, a jump of 23% YoY. With the prospects looking healthy for the industry, the company could expect highr contribution from this segment in the final quarter.

The plantation sector of the group performed remarkably contributing Rs.298 million to operating profit a massive jump of 120% YoY. Agri products too posted an increment of Rs.25 million to Rs.49 million while agri inputs saw a slight draw back in profits due to adverse weather conditions although posting Rs.172 million.