Bourse up on blue chips, foreign inflows

Thursday, 17 April 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: The share index rose to a more than two-month high on Wednesday, led by blue chips and foreign inflows. The main stock index ended up 0.44% at 6,118.85, its highest close since 11 February. Though the day’s turnover at Rs. 745.2 million ($ 5.7 million) was less than this year’s daily average of Rs. 980.6 million, foreign buying accounted for 64.6% of turnover. Many local investors were in a holiday mood as the stock and currency markets are trading only on Wednesday and Thursday this week due to the Sinhala-Tamil New Year, followed by Good Friday. The Bourse saw net foreign inflows for a sixth straight session. Offshore investors bought Rs. 276.3 million worth of stocks, though they have net sold Rs. 8.04 billion of shares so far this year. Top conglomerate John Keells Holdings, which accounted for around 40% of the day’s turnover, ended steady at Rs. 238. Commercial Bank of Ceylon, the top listed private lender, edged up 0.16% to Rs. 127. Analysts said the outlook was still positive due to prevailing lower interest rates. Brokers said the stock market, valued at $ 19.62 billion as of Wednesday’s close, is gradually attracting investors who are looking for higher returns than the deposit rates of around 6-6.5% offered by banks and financial companies. Analysts, however, expect foreigners could shift from the country’s risky assets if Sri Lanka does not cooperate in an international probe conducted by the Office of the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights on the country’s alleged war crimes and human rights abuses. The Foreign Minister said last week that the country would not cooperate with the inquiry. The Bourse has seen Rs. 3.9 billion in outflows since a UN resolution voted for an international probe.

CSE updates listing rules

The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has updated the listing rules incorporating some of the recent directives from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning related party transactions and director and CEO dealings. SEC directed all listed companies to comply with certain specific requirements when effecting Related Party Transactions on 12 December 2013 and when dealings in shares are carried out by Directors and CEOs of listed companies on 27 December 2013. Accordingly, the CSE Listing Rules have been amended to accommodate the new directives. CSE said rules pertaining to Related Party Transactions have been incorporated into Section 9 of the CSE Listings Rules. Furthermore Rule 7.8 has been amended to provide for the Directive pertaining to Dealings by Directors and CEOs of listing companies. “The amended Rules have been approved by the SEC and are effective from the respective dates set out in the relevant directives,” the CSE said. It also said that the introduction of the Continuous Public Holding Requirement by the SEC via directive dated 20 December 2013 has resulted in the CSE Listing Rules having two separate definitions relating to the term ‘Public Holding’. “In order to correct this anomaly, the definition of ‘public holding’ set out in the ‘Definitions’ section of the CSE Listing Rules has been replaced with the definition of Public Holdings indicated in the SEC Directive,” the CSE said. The amended rules can be viewed on CSE website www.cse.lk.