ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka stocks closed down 0.05 percent on Friday amid mixed sentiment, brokers said.
“Market closed flat. There is somewhat of a mixed sentiment,” Ranjan Ranatunga, Assistant Vice President – Research at First Capital told EconomyNext.
The broader ASPI closed down 0.05 percent, or 7.63 points, at 16,115.47; while the more liquid S&P SL20 Index closed down 0.19 percent, or 9.01 points, at 4,808.33.
“Turnover was below the monthly average of 3.4 billion,” Ranatunga said.
Stocks fell amid relatively thin turnover of 2.1 billion rupees in the session.
“There was several sessions of profit taking, now we see buying interest coming in with some selling pressure.”
“Towards the end of the day the ASPI touched the negative territory.”
The indices steeply declined during morning trade followed by some volatility before closing marginally down.
“Selected financials were down.”
Top negative contributors to the ASPI were Chevon Lubricants Lanka (ended 6.3 percent weaker at 145.00), Sampath Bank (fell 1.0 at 120.50), LOLC Holdings (fell 1.5 percent at 630.75), DFCC Bank (closed down 1.5 percent at 108.00) and Commercial Bank (fell 0.5 percent at 142.75).
“Capital goods were the biggest traded sector today,” Ranatunga said.
The highest turnover was seen in capital goods (1.2 billion rupees) followed by banks (273 million rupees) and food, beverage and tobacco (242 million rupees).
Hemas Holdings saw volumes of (485 million rupees), Sampath Bank (105 million rupees) and Melstacorp (75 million rupees).
Most active volumes were seen in John Keells Holdings at 20,609,136 (turnover 432,683,072.00 rupees), R I L Property at 7,721,722 (turnover 115,831,931.50 rupees), HNB Finance at 5,009,462 (turnover 2,289,337.00 rupees) and Hemas Holdings at 4,598,107 (turnover 548,563,856.25 rupees).
There was a net foreign outflow of 409 million rupees. (Colombo/Mar07/2025)