The bourse (stock market) received a setback at today’s trading when it suffered a near two month high net foreign outflow (NFO) of Rs 226.02 million, bogged down by sustained uncertainty led by local investors, over the domestic debt restructuring pathway the Government of Sri Lanka is going to follow, coupled with a high inflationary and high interest rate regime, inimical to the growth of the bourse. Today’s turnover was a miserly Rs 729.71 million. Prior to today, the largest NFO the bourse suffered was on 31 March with a value of Rs 2.53 billion.
Meanwhile, it was only yesterday it enjoyed the largest net foreign inflow (NFI) after more than three months with a figure of Rs 494.88 million. Nonetheless, in the calendar year to today the bourse has enjoyed an NFO of Rs 1.45 billion.
Nevertheless, the stock market suffered a daily turnover of under Rs one billion for the twentieth consecutive market day to today. Prior to today, the last time the stock market made daily turnovers of under Rs one billion for at least 20 consecutive market days was more than three years ago when the COVID-19 crisis first hit Sri Lanka. Subsequently for 25 consecutive market days, ie from 30 January 2020 to 6 March 2020, the stock market made daily turnover levels of under Rs one billion.
Meanwhile market indices fell for the second consecutive market day to today, with the benchmark ASPI and the ‘more sensitive’ S&P SL 20 Index falling by 0.18 per cent each over yesterday to 8,697.07 and 2,480.76 points respectively. The number of shares that changed hands today was a miserly 25.89 million.