Captains’ child’s play on JKH

High networth yet low profile Captains family dabbled in Sri Lanka’s premier blue chip John Keells Holdings (JKH) yesterday an act which infused some life to an otherwise struggling stock market.

* Buy around 5.5 million shares of JKH for Rs. 1.6 b in between selling nearly 2 million shares

* EPF, high networth investors among buyers of JKH; Foreign fund Baypond major seller with  Rs. 2 b foreign net outflow  

 

* Trade of 8 million shares of premier blue chip for Rs. 2.4 billion gives life to an otherwise struggling Bourse

Nearly 8 million shares or 1.2% of JKH came under play generating Rs. 2.4 billion turnover or 46% of day’s total of Rs. 5.2 billion. Daily FT learns that Captains, the largest shareholder in JKH, stepped up their play on JKH yesterday originally selling which saw its price come down and then collecting around 5.5 million shares at an average cost of Rs. 300 each. They also sold around 2 million shares at a higher price. JKH peaked to a high of Rs. 310 and a low of Rs. 302.50, before closing at Rs. 303.70, down by  Rs. 6.30.

This finish saw the Bourse close eventually down yesterday by about 0.5% despite the high turnover.

NDB Stockbrokers said JKH saw eight crossings (1,264,000 shares at Rs. 305 each, 100,000 shares at

Rs. 306 each and 5,000,000 shares at Rs. 300 each).  Foreign holding of the company declined by 5.5 million shares.

Analysts said that Baypond, a foreign fund, which had been aggressively collecting JKH in recent months, was the major seller whilst EPF as well as several high networth investors had been among the buying side.

Foreign sale on JKH saw net non-national outflow of Rs. 2 billion.

The active MPI index shed slightly over 1% and the negative close of both indices killed hopes arising out of Tuesday’s sharp gain by the Bourse reversing three days of flat performance.

“Selling pressure was witnessed again despite the gain in indices during early trading. The momentum seems to be on the selling side, although positive earnings results for FY 10/11Q2 would reverse the direction,” NDB Stockbrokers said.

“The indices dipped despite healthy turnover levels generated mainly from the deals executed in banking and diversified counters,” opined John Keells Stock Brokers whilst Asia Securities said “Market ended in the red today although strong interest was seen across the board.”

Diversified and Bank Finance & Insurance sectors were the highest contributors to the market turnover, while the sector indices decreased by 1.57% and 0.47% respectively.

Best performing sector was Information Technology (+2.67%) and the worst was Investment Trusts (-3.06%).

Apart from JKH, private banking giant HNB contributed the second highest turnover (Rs. 627 million) with 1.55 million shares traded. It included five crossings (253,700 shares at Rs. 400 and 1,000,000 shares at Rs. 405), while the price decreased by Rs. 9.00 (2.20%) and closed at Rs. 400.00. Foreign holding of the company increased by 1 million shares.

Market also saw 10 major crossings with 2,231,600 shares of Distilleries (1,731,600 shares at Rs. 181.50 and 500,000 shares at Rs. 183), 91,000 shares of DFCC Bank at Rs. 440 and 2,000,100 shares of Vallibel Power Erathna at Rs. 10. Distilleries accounted for Rs. 600 million turnover.

Asia Securities said HNB and Distilleries saw institutional and high net worth interest during the day whilst Amaya Reef continued to gather momentum on the back of retail interest. Further Seylan Bank (Non voting) was also among the retailers’ favourite picks.

Vallibel Power Erathna which saw 10.8 million of its shares trading on Tuesday, was subject to a further trade of 4.4 million yesterday closing unchanged at Rs. 10. On Tuesday main seller was Vallibel Erathna Director and high networth investor Nimal Perera with buyers being EPF as well as high networth investor Dr. T. Senthilverl.