Bourse hits near one-week closing low on profit-taking

Wednesday, 18 October 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Shares ended down for a second straight session on Tuesday, slipping further from their highest close in more than 10 weeks hit last week, with investors booking profits in telecom stocks while block deals boosted the turnover, brokers said.

The Colombo stock index ended 0.36% weaker at 6,572.05, its lowest close since 11 October. Last week, the Bourse rose 1.6%, posting its fifth straight weekly gain.

“Today, we observed that profit-taking was still on,” said Atchuthan Srirangan, senior research analyst, First Capital Holdings Plc.

“The turnover is boosted by some big deals. We saw a foreign selling of over Rs. 1 billion in East West Properties which might trigger more foreign selling in future.”

Shares of Dialog Axiata Plc ended 3.1% weaker, Sri Lanka Telecom Plc finished 5.4% down, while Lion Brewery Plc closed down 4.7%.

Shares of East West Properties Plc, which accounted for 58% of Tuesday’s turnover, and saw 88 million shares of foreign selling, ended 4% up.

Turnover was Rs. 1.9 billion ($ 12.38 million), more than double of this year’s daily average of Rs. 939 million.

Foreign investors were net sellers of shares worth Rs. 1.1 billion on Tuesday. They have, however, net bought Rs. 19.1 billion worth of shares so far this year.