Sri Lanka's stock market recovered from a six-month low on Tuesday led by 3.8 percent rise in heavyweight John Keells Holdings with foreign inflow for the first time in 10 sessions as institutional investors bought battered shares. Sri Lanka's main share index gained 0.68 percent or 46.05 points to 6,862.79. Monday's close was its lowest close since January 6.
Since June 1, the bourse had shed 7.1 percent mainly due to forced selling, in line with the policy of the regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to recover credits, aiming to eliminate all credit dealing by end 2011. Over 6 billion Sri Lankan rupees is locked up in two recent initial public offerings. On Monday, the SEC's Director General Malik Cader said there may be over 30 billion rupees of liquidity locked in private placements and IPOs since February this year.
The day's turnover was 2.51 billion Sri Lanka rupees ($22.92 million), slightly above last year's average of 2.4 billion, but below this year's daily average of 2.82 billion. Foreign investors were net buyers of 28.3 million rupees worth of shares on Tuesday, the first inflow in 10 sessions, and they have sold a 7.54 billion rupees in 2011 after a record 26.4 billion in 2010.
Traded volume was 47.4 million, against a five-day average of 63.1 million. The 30-day and 90-day average trading volumes were 179.1 million and 103.2 million, respectively. Last year's daily average was 67.9 million. The rupee closed unchanged at 109.49/50 a dollar as a state bank defended the local currency.
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