The Bourse Weekly Performance (Week-ended 29th November 2013)

The Bourse Weekly Performance (Week-ended 29^th November 2013)

	Week-ended 22nd November 2013	Week-ended 29th November 2013
All Share Price Index	5,792.72	5,775.09
S&P SL20 Index	3,197.88	3,174.63
Total Turnover for the week (Rs.)	3,280,971,022/-	2,467,599,253/-
Total Net Foreign Inflow/ (Outflow) (Rs.)	63,073,943/-	(78,164,263/-)
Market Capitalisation (Rs.)	2,409,773,624,325/-	2,402,708,281,659/-
Market PER	15.02	14.98

The international stock exchanges are seen to be trading near six year highs, which Reuter’s reported was due to “faith in an improving global economy and support from central banks, which drove markets towards a third straight month of gains.” This was mainly due to the fall in euro zone unemployment numbers for the first time in almost four years coupled with rising prices based on latest inflation data which gave fresh momentum to a global economic recovery. The report went on to explain that “The Nikkei in Tokyo notched up its best November since 2005 despite some late profit taking in Asia, as the yen, at a five-year against the euro and a six-month low versus the dollar, boosted hopes for its big exporting firms.” European shares opened fractionally higher near a 5-1/2 year high, heading for a seventh week in positive territory out of the last eight. The Financial Times Global Macro Maps indicated that, the highest growth over the past 5 days have been reported in India’s S&P CNX Nifty of 3.04%, followed by Spain (Ibex 35) and Mexico (MXSE IPC). However, Russia (RTS) and Indonesia (Jakarta Comp) failed to meet the momentum as these market indices reported losses above 1% for the past 5 market days.

Colombo too failed to meet the exceptional performance of the world markets, while the 2014 budget too failed to revitalize a struggling market. A recent market report suggested that “the market has been on a falling trend after earnings in the September quarter pointed to a slower growth. Worries on the possibility of new taxes imposed on consumer spending and thereby undermining the revenue of listed firms has also hurt the market”. The report went on to indicate that as of mid week, the Colombo bourse has lost Rs. 20 Billion in value post-2014 Budget week. However, the latter part of the week saw the bourse attempting to make a slow recovery even though the ASI closed for the week in the red losing 17 points. This was equivalent to a loss in market capitalization of Rs. 7 Billion post the budget week.

Turnover levels continued to drop this week too and a significant contribution came in from the Banking Finance and Insurance sector followed by the Diversified Holdings sector. HNB, COMM, JKH & SPEN contributed for the turnover for the week. The biggest loss for the week was generated in the Trading sector while the Power and Energy sector generated the highest return for the week.  Analysts point out that the widespread bearish sentiments at the bourse may be linked to “the Budget not being emphatic in terms of kick-starting a fresh wave of optimism and growth” while some made relation to the corporate debt market offering attractive fixed income returns through debenture issues. Reports suggest that these resulted in diversion of investor interests and liquidity from equities. Nevertheless, as the market enters the final month of trading for 2013, foreigners make net buyers for the year while retailers are seen to be taking to the side-lines. The market PER of 14.98X is 6% lower than the opening market PER for 2013. So far this year the Colombo bourse has reported a year to date gain of 2.34%.