The total market turnover of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) during the first nine months of this year has been recorded at Rs. 567 billion, said Chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange Dilshan Wirasekara.
He said that the average daily turnover was Rs. 3.3 billion which he believes is satisfactory given the local and global economic conditions.
He told Sunday Observer Business that most markets globally have also recorded year to date declines for 2022 and in Sri Lanka too the Benchmark All Share Price Index (ASPI) declined by 18.8% by the end of the first nine months of the year. The S&P SL20 index, which includes the 20 largest and most liquid shares, has shown a decline of 25.2% for the same period.
“However, one redeeming factor is that the market activity levels have been favourable,” he said.
Commenting on the net foreign inflows to date, he said that since 2017 CSE recorded a positive net inflow as at October 14, 2022. “We have a net inflow of Rs. 16.7 billion in the secondary market and a net inflow of Rs. 20.3 billion from the primary market. Hence, the total net foreign inflow for 2022 is Rs. 37 billion.”
“The CSE and the Stock broking industry continue to engage with Institutional investors although a road show may not be on the cards in the immediate future. We hope to re-engage foreign institutional investors next year,” Wirasekara said.
With regard to regulatory developments he said that the CSE has just completed a major exercise in revamping all the rules to be in conformity with the new SEC Act and these are being reviewed by the SEC.
“We also have been working on a project to expand the listing framework to facilitate debt and equity listings of SOEs. The guidelines to be adopted by the CSE for granting waivers of Listings Rules to SOEs and the rule changes have been presented to the regulator for their approval,” he said.
This will enable SOEs to raise debt and equity capital through the capital market.
The CSE has also been working on enabling local companies to raise foreign currency denominated capital via listing debt securities on the CSE. In this regard rule changes are yet to get clearance from the regulator.
In conformity with the new SEC Act, new dispute resolution rules are being formulated ensuring enhanced investor protection.