The bourse suffered a daily turnover of under Rs one billion for the tenth consecutive market day to yesterday after 1,150 calendar days, registering a miserly value of Rs 589.74 million recorded in yesterday’s trading alone, dogged by sustained uncertainty, high inflation and high interest rates.
Prior to yesterday, the last time the stock market made daily turnovers of under Rs one billion for at least nine 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. A high interest rate regime is inimical to the growth of the stock market as then; investors are attracted to the fixed income market, rather than to the latter.
Nonetheless the benchmark ASPI, yesterday over the previous day Wednesday (10 May) made a pyrrhic gain backed by retail interest, increasing by 0.65 per cent to 8,949.82 points and the ‘more sensitive’ S&P SL 20 Index gained by 0.59 per cent to 2,603.93 points. However, the stock market suffered a net foreign outflow of Rs 21.91 million yesterday, though in the calendar year to date it has enjoyed a net foreign inflow of Rs 1.52 billion. The number of shares that changed hands yesterday was 45.38 million.