18 October 2017 09:35 am
REUTERS: Sri Lankan shares ended down for a second straight session yesterday, slipping further from their highest close in more than 10 weeks hit last week, with investors booking profits in telecom stocks while block deals boosted the turnover, brokers said.
The Colombo stock index ended 0.36 percent weaker at 6,572.05, its lowest close since Oct. 11. Last week, the bourse rose 1.6 percent, posting its fifth straight weekly gain. “Today, we observed that profit-taking was still on,” said Atchuthan Srirangan, senior research analyst, First Capital Holdings PLC. “The turnover is boosted by some big deals.
We saw a foreign selling of over Rs.1 billion East West Properties which might trigger more foreign selling in future.”
Shares of Dialog Axiata Plc ended 3.1 percent weaker, Sri Lanka Telecom Plc finished 5.4 percent down, while Lion Brewery Plc closed down 4.7 percent. Shares of East West Properties Plc, which accounted for 58 percent of yesterday’s turnover and saw 88 million shares of foreign selling, ended 4 percent up. Turnover was Rs.1.9 billion (US$12.38 million), more than double of this year’s daily average of Rs.939 million.
Foreign investors were net sellers of shares worth Rs.1.1 billion yesterday. They have, however, net bought Rs.19.1 billion worth of shares so far this year.