Bourse dips on selling pressure over JKH rights issue

REUTERS:Stocks slipped for a third straight session on Wednesday to a two-week low, led by telecommunications and hotel shares as investors sold their stocks to fund buying in top conglomerate John Keells Holdings PLC rights issue, dealers said.
The main share index dropped 0.41%, or 24.32 points, to 5,900.90, its lowest since 8 October. It hit an eight-week high on Thursday.
“The market is down as investors were cashing to buy Keells rights. The market will be sluggish till the rights issue is over,” a stockbroker said on condition of anonymity. The deadline for the rights issue Friday.
Shares in leading fixed line telephone operator Sri Lanka Telecom PLC fell 2.26% to Rs. 38.90.
Keells’ ordinary shares edged up 0.05% to Rs. 213.00, while the conglomerate’s rights shares rose 4.07% to Rs. 51.10.
The day’s turnover was Rs. 481.2 million ($ 3.68 million), well below this year’s daily average of Rs. 876.6 million.
Foreign investors were net buyers of Rs. 32.6 million worth of shares on Wednesday, extending the year-to-date foreign inflows to Rs. 22.79 billion worth of shares.