Sri Lanka stocks close up, selling pressure in banks

The Colombo Stock Exchange All Shares Price Index closed up 0.04 percent on Monday, after experiencing a dip during midday trading, CSE data showed.

The ASPI was up 9.18 points at 21,126.60.

The S&P SL20 was down 0.24 percent, or 14.24 points at 5,861.45.

“Trump statements are having a large impact, including his brash commenting on bombing Iran,” Raynal Wickremeratne, Head of Strategy at Softlogic Stockbrokers, told Economynext.

“Pakistan has come up with a 2 point ceasefire plan, which could be why the market recovered after the morning dip,” he added.

DFCC Bank (up 1.82 percent at Rs.139.75), Cargills Bank (up 2.11 percent at Rs.703.25), and Access Engineering (up 2.21 percent at Rs.69.50) were the top positive contributors to ASPI.

Commercial Bank (down 1.24 percent at Rs.199.25), Hatton National Bank (down 1.13 percent at Rs.395.00), and Melstacorp (down 0.73 percent at Rs.169.50) were the top negative contributors.

The banking counter saw a dampening following the revelation by NDB that a fraud amounting to a loss of 13.4 billion rupees was committed internally.

NDB stock last traded at 130.50 rupees before trading was halted.

Analysts said that the market will want to see if its an isolated incident or part of a wider case before reacting.

“Selling pressure seen in banking, but after midday stocks started moving back up, recovering some of the losses, buying interest started coming back to JKH and construction,” Dimantha Matthew, Chief Research and Strategy Officer at First Capital Holdings PLC said.

Turnover was 3.029 billion rupees. Food, beverage and tobacco contributed 1.014 billion to the turnover.

Crossings were observed in Melstacorp (4,563,820), JKH (2 million), and Tokyo Cement (654,213).