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The bourse sharply fell for the third consecutive market day to today, wiping out shareholder wealth valued at Rs 82.84 billion (Rs 89 billion) in the process, bogged down by a high inflationary and high interest rate regime, inimical to the growth of the bourse
Consequently, the benchmark ASPI and the ‘more sensitive’ S&P SL 20 Index fell down to 123 and 174 calendar day lows today, with the ASPI, today over the previous market day Friday, declining by 1.21 per cent to 8,611.38 points and the S&P SL 20 Index declining by 1.78 per cent to 2,434.31 points on a miserly Rs 599.03 million turnover.
Market indices last reflected lower figures than those of today’s was on 19 January 2023 when the ASPI showed a value of 8,484.92 points and the S&P SL 20 Index on 21 November 2022 with a value of 2,366.55 points respectively.
Further, the stock market suffered a daily turnover of under Rs one billion for the sixteenth 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 16 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, the stock market enjoyed a pyrrhic net foreign inflow (NFI) of Rs 5.54 million today, increasing NFIs enjoyed in the calendar day to today to Rs 1.46 billion. The number of shares that changed hands today was a parsimonious 27.41 million.