Bourse extended its bullish trend, closing the short trading day with a significant gain of 71 points, reaching a new milestone by surpassing 12,000 mark for the first time in 2-years, and settling at 12,033 ahead of the new year holidays.
Investor sentiment remained optimistic, particularly towards the Banking sector due to attractive valuations, with COMB, HNB, and SAMP notably driving the ASPI hike for the day.
Additionally, there was a slight uptick in investor interest observed in selected construction sector counters. Improved retail participation coupled with active buying of HNWIs and institutional investors further fueled turnover particularly through off-board transactions in SAMP, LOLC, and MGT, which jointly accounted for 46% of the market turnover.
As a result, turnover reached LKR 3.0Bn during the session (+34% cf. monthly average turnover of LKR 2.2Bn), with the Banking sector accounting for 60% of the turnover.
Dull sentiment persists ahead of the New Year holidays
The secondary market continued to witness a dull sentiment ahead of the New Year holidays with slight buying interest emerging on the more liquid 15.12.26 maturity, with trades taking place between 11.35% to 11.30%.
Meanwhile, on the external side, LKR continued to appreciate against the greenback and recorded at LKR 298.68/USD. Furthermore, after rebounding last week recording marginal growth, foreign holdings of government securities continue to improve during the concerned week, recording LKR 91.6Bn.
Meanwhile, with the reduction of policy rates by 50bps at the last monetary policy review, AWPR declined to 10.56% for the week ended 5th April 2024 from 10.69% recorded in the week ended 28th March 2024.
Courtesy: First Capital Research
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