Sri Lanka shares down from over 5-month high amid profit taking
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka stocks slipped on Tuesday (13) for the first time in the five sessions on retail selling amid profit taking with some shares which had risen in the past few sessions, brokers said.
The main All Share Price Index (ASPI) fell 0.65% or 64.09 points to 9,749.09, falling from highest since March 28 hit on the previous session.
“After gaining continuously in the last few session, we saw selling coming into the counters that mostly moved the market,” a market analyst said.
“We are seeing this short-turn around trend in the market as there is an underlying selling pressure. As much as the market moves up, there is also a selling pressure that comes in.”
The market saw a turnover of 3.7 billion rupees, slightly higher than this year’s average turnover of 3.19 billion rupees.
The bourse saw a net foreign inflow of 108 million rupees on Tuesday. The net foreign inflow so far this year is 4.29 billion rupees after 5.6 billion rupees of net offshore buying in the last 21 consecutive sessions amid positive sentiment over an IMF deal.
The IMF early this month announced that it reached a staff-level agreement with Sri Lanka 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 the sovereign debt default declared on April 12 which deepened its economic crisis and turned into a political crisis. The island nation 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 0.74% or 23.49 points up at 3,133.15.
The main index ASPI has gained 7.4 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.
Ceylinco Insurance pushed the index down, closing 4.4 percent lower at 2,034 rupees a share.
Royal Ceramics closed 5.8 percent down at 39.3 rupees and LOLC Holdings closed 3.4 percent up at 545.5 rupees a share. (Colombo/Sept13/2022)
