Foreign buying interest in JKH stocks buoys bourse

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

CSE trading kicked off on a bullish note yesterday for the third consecutive day when foreign buying interest cropped up, especially in JKH stocks, when a US investor, International Development Finance Corporation, decided to invest US $ 553 million in the West Container Terminal Project through the Adani Group. JKH also has an interest in it, market analysts said.

Further, JKH is also planning to sign an agreement with an international gaming operator for their Cinnamon Life projects, which also attracted stock market investors, especially foreign investors in the company’s stock. Apart from that a US $ 750 million standalone wind power project in Sri Lanka also created some impetus to the market, market analysts said.

Analysts said there was a recovery in the market sentiment due to some of the earnings results announced. They said in addition to the two major crossings that went through, including JKH, there was more retail activity in the market.

Amid those developments turnover had crossed the Rs 1 billion mark before noon, driven mostly by trades in JKH shares, both in a crossing and onboard trading while both indices moved upwards. The All Share Price Index went up by 66.24 points and S and P SL20 rose by 39.15 points. Turnover stood at Rs 1.82 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in JKH, which crossed 381,000 shares to the tune of Rs 74.3 million; its shares traded at Rs 195, Browns Investments 7.1 million shares crossed for Rs 37.6 million and its shares traded at Rs 5.30 and Windforce 1.4 million shares crossed for Rs 26.3 million; its shares traded at Rs 19.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; JKH Rs 629 million (3.2 million shares traded), Sampath Bank Rs 171.1 million (2.5 million shares traded), Capital Alliance Rs 108 million (1.65 million shares traded), Lanka Milk Food Rs 51.7 million (274,000 shares traded), NDB Rs 47 million (694,000 shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 46.8 million (8.9 million shares traded) and First Capital Holdings Rs 44.3 million (1.2 million shares traded). During the day 77.3 million share volumes changed hands in 12328 transactions.

Yesterday, the rupee opened at Rs 327.50/328.25 to the US dollar, dealers said.