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Treasury and CSE bleed Rs. 1 b each in Q1 2021

04 Apr 2021

  • CSE net foreign outflow for Q1 lower than last year

By The Sunday Morning Business Desk   Both treasury bills and bonds held by foreigners and the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) have recorded over Rs. 1 billion each net foreign outflows for the quarter ended on Wednesday (31 March), according to Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and CSE data. Net foreign outflows from the CSE for the first quarter of this year has been over Rs. 1 billion, which is much lower than the net foreign outflow of Rs. 5.2 billion reported a year before. In the first quarter of this year, foreign purchases at the CSE amounted to Rs. 23.46 billion while foreign sales were recorded as Rs. 24.5 billion. Out of the three months under this quarter, March witnessed high numbers of foreign sales. Meanwhile, treasury bills and bonds held by foreigners, which were at around Rs. 6.87 billion in the beginning of this year, reduced to Rs. 5.78 billion as of the last week of March, recording a net foreign outflow of over Rs. 1 billion, Central Bank data noted. In the first quarter of last year, specifically in the second week of March during when the virus began spreading all over the world including to Sri Lanka, regular trading at CSE was halted for 30 minutes on three days. This was after the S&P SL20 index, which includes the 20 largest companies by total market capitalisation listed on the CSE, fell by 5% on each day. CSE continued to be closed on 17 March due to the three-day public holiday declared by the Government from 17-19 March. This was to prevent potential massive sell-off. By the end of March, CSE announced that it will remain closed for trading from 1 April until further notice. This “further notice” lasted for over a month as the market opened for trading on 11 May after the seven-week-long islandwide lockdown was lifted on the same day. The same quarter witnessed foreign companies selling off Rs. 35.66 billion worth of shares while foreign individuals sold Rs. 179.38 million shares. Foreign companies purchased Rs. 30 billion shares while foreign individuals purchased Rs. 416.6 million shares, resulting in a net foreign outflow (both institutional and individuals) of a whopping Rs. 5.42 billion. Meanwhile on Tuesday (30), CSE recorded its highest daily turnover of Rs. 7.4 billion since the previous high of Rs. 23 billion recorded on 1 February 2021. Furthermore, the Rs. 6.2 billion crossing of Piramal Glass Ceylon PLC is recorded as the single largest transaction since 1 February 2021. The market further recorded a total share volume of 619,011,539.


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