The Colombo bourse commenced the trading day on a positive note, with bullish investor sentiment propelling it to an intra-day high of 12,421.
However, market dynamics shifted post-midday, leading to a downtrend that saw the market closing at 12,354, down by 9 points from the previous day.
Notably, the Banking sector counters, including HNB, SAMP, and NDB, exhibited reduced activity, contributing to the negative trend observed.
The day's turnover totaled LKR 3.1Bn, marking a 19.7% decrease from the previous day. However, trading volumes reached the highest seen in four weeks backed by increase interest on penny stocks.
Meanwhile today’s turnover marked a 13.1% increase over the monthly average of LKR 2.7Bn with HAYL dominating the daily aggregate turnover, accounting for 13.6%, while JKH contributed 7.9%, particularly following its partnership announcement with Melco.
The Capital Goods sector emerged as the leading contributor, comprising 34% of the turnover, followed closely by the combined contribution of the Diversified Financials and Materials sectors, which amounted to 29%. Foreign investors remained net sellers, with a net outflow of LKR 93.2Mn, indicating their cautious stance in the market.
Bullish sentiment extends to the 5th day
The yield curved nudged further down as the secondary market continued to see buying interest for the 5th consecutive session amidst positive investor sentiment while volumes were on moderate levels.
On the short end of the curve, 01.02.2026 closed transactions at 10.40%. Further, 15.05.2026, 01.06.2026 and 15.12.2026 hovered between 10.85%-10.70%. Meanwhile, liquid maturities 2027 and 2028 too enticed interest at today’s session.
Accordingly, 15.09.2027 and 01.05.2027 traded between 11.20%-11.10% while on 2028 tenor; 15.01.2028, 15.03.2028, 01.07.2028 and 15.12.2028 hovered within a range of 11.70%-11.50%. On the long end, 15.05.2030 changed hands between 12.25%-12.15% whilst 01.10.2032 traded between 12.35%-12.30%. In terms of forex movement, LKR depreciated against the greenback closing at LKR 297.6.
On the macro environment, there was a slight increase in headline inflation for Apr-24, with YoY CCPI rising to 1.5%, up from 0.9% in Mar-24.
Courtesy: First Capital Research
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