Foreigners bullish; buy Rs. 279 m worth of shares

As concerned locals remain on the sidelines, foreign investors continue to be bullish as they bought Rs. 279 million worth of shares yesterday accounting for 74% of the total turnover.

Foreign buying dwarfed that of locals, which was only Rs. 97 million.
Foreigners were also active overall with Rs. 115 million in sales, resulting in a net foreign inflow of Rs.  164 million, thereby increasing the year-to-date figure to Rs. 23.34 billion.
Foreign funds picked up Rs. 96 million worth of JKH shares, Rs. 68 million in Commercial Bank non-voting, over Rs. 50 million in Nestle shares.             

Other stocks of interest for foreigners included Aitken Spence, Aitken Spence Hotels, and Royal Ceramics. Sellers included local high net worth individuals and institutional investors whilst some of these stocks were sold by foreigners as well.
Overall depressed sentiments as well as concern over inflation and rising interest rates extended the Colombo Stock Exchange’s ASI fall to a fourth straight session with the index losing 0.13 per cent or 6.35 points to 4,946.58, its lowest since 14 June.
Turnover at Rs. 377.9 million was well below this year’s daily average turnover of Rs. 969.6 million.