‘’Bubbly bourse continues to retake its lost traces as it nears 6,000 platform once more; MPI crosses 5,600 points…’’
Posted on the September 18th, 2012 under Market Reports by Softlogic Equity Research 
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Daily Trade Journal – CSE Diary for 17.09.2012
The September bull continued its uphill ride after bottling all its steam for more than a year of bear dominance. More new investors stepped in as they did not want to miss the punt. The less than two-month old bull is in the phase of taking over all losses that accumulated during the snail run of the bourse. The positive outcome of Friday’s SEC meeting with the brokers, added to the greenery of the bourse making a settlement above 6,000 point levels realistic to conclude September trading, if the current mode continues.
Basket of bargains has remained plentiful as even with the fierce rally, over 100 stocks are found trading below book value [Refer today’s Monthly Quantitative Publication on the Hunt on the low PBVs]. Our voice always echoes with fundamental investing as we continue to caution the popular day traders and short term speculators. We advise our investors to lose focus on the theory of high volume on upticks and vice versa; instead remain strong-minded with the high quality stocks which are available at bargain rates. We believe that the market is in a position to digest further of such up turns following a dark prolonged period of a bumpy ride. However, we welcome a breather at relevant intervals.
The morning gallop led the ASPI just 5 points below the 6,000 mark, which trended down after 10:30 am. It closed with a 43.7 point gain at 5,970.55 points after experiencing a strong recovery after 12.00 noon. MPI followed the ASPI pattern to breach 5,600 mark at 5,632.2 points for the day. The S&P SL20 index gain was led by gains the banking players; Commercial Bank, Hatton National Bank and Sampath Bank whilst John Keells Holdings, Nestle Lanka, Aitken Spence and Hayleys too shouldered the index gain. The morning hasty trades the market touch LKR1 bn before noon with volume remaining healthy at 100.4 mn shares for the day. A number of counters including; John Keells Holdings, Commercial Bank [Voting & Non-Voting], Haycarb, Brown Beach Hotels, Balangoda Plantations, Chevron Lubricants, Trans Asia, Ceylon Cold Stores, Hotel Sigiriya and George Steuart & Finance, went onto touch 52-week high points.
Access Engineering distracted the investors’ eye in the morning hours of trading as a 96.2k share block was dealt on board at LKR20.0. The counter touched a high of LKR21.0 before closing with a 7.4% gain at LKR20.2. Kalpitiya Beach Resorts and Waskaduwa Beach Resorts, was amongst the top gainers as a number of sizeable parcels were seen taken on board on the counters. The two resorts raced up 27.0% and 13.8% at their close of LKR9.4 and LKR9.1 respectively. Interest was provoked in its parent, Citrus Leisure, accelerating its price by 9.9% at its end of LKR36.6.
Commercial Bank [Voting & Non-Voting] did not move out of value seekers’ watch as both the counters cemented their stay in the top turnover slot whilst interest in John Keells Holdings remained unscathed.
Lanka Hospital Corporation, Colombo Land & Development, Nation Lanka Finance, HVA Foods, Ceylinco Seylan Development, Seylan Merchant Bank [Non-Voting], Seylan Bank [Non-Voting], Environmental Resource Investments, Coco Lanka, Tokyo Cement [Voting & Non-Voting], Textured Jersey, People’s Leasing, Vallibel One and Seylan Bank [Non-Voting] were also amongst the day’s active list.
Plantation counters; Bogawantalawa Tea Estates and Kegalle Plantations encountered some interest during the day as each closed with a 9.7% and 8.4% gain respectively.
European stocks declined from a 15- month high as concern of a deepening economic slowdown in China overshadowed optimism resulting from the Federal Reserve’s third round of quantitative easing. Asian shares were little changed: The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.2% to 275.36 at 10:11 am in London.
Oil traded near the highest price in four months before reports forecast to show a strengthening economy in the U.S., the world’s biggest consumer of crude: Oil for October delivery dropped 23 cents to USD98.88 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 8:54 am London time.
