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Tuesday, 2 February 2021 01:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Colombo stock market turnover yesterday rose to a 13-year high of Rs. 23.7 billion, powered by business leader Ishara Nanayakkara and several of his connected companies.
Turnover yesterday was the second highest of all time behind the Rs. 33 billion recorded on 1 April 2008. An all-time high of over 2.8 billion shares were traded yesterday.
Ishara sold near 14.5% of his personal stake in Browns Investments Plc (BIL) to Brown and Company Plc for Rs. 13.37 billion. Overall, BIL saw 2.7 billion shares changing hands via 2,617 trades for Rs. 17.37 billion turnover. It closed unchanged at Rs. 6.70. Net asset value per share of BIL as at 30 September 2020 was Rs. 2.51.
Brown and Company bought the stake (2.6 billion shares) via its fully-owned subsidiary by B.I. Holdings Ltd., and increased its stake in BIL to 60.64% from 46%.
Ishara sold the stakes held via his private companies Oxford Capital Ltd (1.1 billion shares or 7.7%) and Churchill Capital Ltd. (0.98 billion shares or 6.86%). Other sellers were LOLC Investments (509.8 million or 3.5%), and LOLC Holdings (28.7 million).
The value and volume of the deal took investors off-guard and a degree of profit-taking after enjoying 30% gain in January saw indices decline yesterday. The All-Share Price Index declined by 101 points or 1.17%, whilst the more active S&P SL20 index dipped sharply by 2% or 75 points.
Some analysts attributed the dip to SEC and CSE directives on broker credit exposure to clients and CSE circular mistakenly listing 10 shares in particular, including LOLC and Browns Investments. (See box story). CSE yesterday clarified and corrected the circular.
LOLC also figured among the top five turnover contributors with Rs. 1.37 billion followed by Sampath Bank (Rs. 590.3 million), Expolanka (Rs. 515.5 million) and Vallibel One (Rs. 513.8 million).
First Capital said Bourse continued its downfall for the second consecutive session.
“Index plunged within the first 30 minutes of trading, and thereafter bounced back reaching its intraday high of 8,759. Later market witnessed a strong downtrend for the rest of the session and closed at 8,567 losing 101 points,” it added.
NDB Securities said the ASPI closed in red as a result of price losses in counters such as LOLC Holdings, LOLC Development Finance and Commercial Bank.
It said mixed interest was observed in LOLC Holdings, Royal Ceramics and Dipped Products, whilst retail interest was noted in Sampath Bank, Vallibel One and Expolanka Holdings.
Brown and Company (the Parent company of Browns Investments) purchased 18.33% of ordinary voting share ownership of Brown Investments. The Food, Beverage & Tobacco sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to Browns Investments), whilst the sector index gained 0.21%. The share price of Browns Investments closed flat at Rs. 6.70.
Diversified Financials sector was the second highest contributor to the market turnover (due to LOLC Holdings), whilst the sector index decreased by 1.69%. The share price of LOLC Holdings lost Rs. 9 (1.76%) to close at Rs. 503.75.
Sampath Bank, Expolanka Holdings and Vallibel One were also included amongst the top turnover contributors. The share price of Sampath Bank moved down by Rs. 6.25 (3.10%) closing at Rs. 195.25, whilst foreign holdings decreased by 961,281 shares. The share price of Expolanka Holdings recorded a gain of Rs. 0.80 (1.58%) to close at Rs. 51.30. The share price of Vallibel One declined by Rs. 1.60 (1.95%) to close at Rs. 80.30.
Separately Lanka Ceramic announced an interim dividend of Rs. 1.30 per share.
Net foreign selling persisted with Rs. 382 million yesterday bringing the total year to date figure to Rs. 8.9 billion.
Asia Securities said estimated net foreign buying topped in LOLC at Rs. 13.7 million and net foreign selling topped in SAMP at Rs. 187.7 million.
