Sri Lanka stocks gain for third straight session led by market heavyweights
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka stocks ended the week in green with gaining for the third straight session to close at a fresh five months high on Friday (09) led by market heavyweights Expolanka and John Keells, brokers said.
The main All Share Price Index (ASPI) gained 1.09% or 104.89 points to 9,704.21, its highest since March 28.
The market saw a turnover of 4.1 billion rupees, higher than this year’s average turnover of 3.17 billion
rupees.
Market analysts said, the market has also gained due to some positive sentiments from investors on the hopes of macroeconomic stability.
On Friday, the market saw crossings worth 47.9 million rupees was seen in Royal Ceramic and 84.5 million rupees in John Keells Holdings.
The market saw a net foreign outflow of 309 million rupees on Friday.
The net foreign inflow so far this year is 4.1 billion rupees after the bourse saw 5.52 billion rupees of net foreign buying in the last 19 consecutive sessions amid positive sentiment over an IMF deal.
The IMF announced that it reached a staff-level agreement with Sri Lanka on Thursday (01), with a
possible 48-month 2.9 billion dollars in Extended Fund Facility (EFF) once the debt restructuring is done.
Sri Lanka also submitted a reform-oriented interim budget for 2022 on August 30 which was seen as
market positive.
The budget is aimed at almost doubling the tax-to-GDP ratio to 15 percent by 2025 from 8.2 percent at the end of 2021.
Sri Lanka is in the process of coming out of sovereign debt default declared on April 12 which deepened its economic crisis and turned into a political crisis. Sri Lanka is facing its worst fuel and economic crisis in its post-independence era. The economy is expected to contract more than 8 percent this year.
The more liquid S&P SL20 index ended 2.03% or 62.26 points up at 3,131.29.
The main index ASPI has gained 6.9 percent in September so far after gaining 17.3 percent in August.
The index has lost 21.5 percent so far this year after being one of the world’s best stock markets with an 80 percent return last year when large volumes of money were printed.
Investors are also concerned over the steep fall of the rupee from 203 to 370 levels so far in 2022.
John Keells Holdings pushed the index up, closing 4.4 percent higher at 130.5 rupees a share.
Expolanka closed 4.1 percent up at 237.5 rupees and Royal Ceramics closed 8.5 percent up at 38.5
rupees a share. (Colombo/Sept09/2022)
