Singapore Forum brings gains to CSE
The Invest Sri Lanka Capital Market Investor Forum in Singapore early this week has brought the Colombo stock market some gains.
On Wednesday, a day after the forum, ride-hailing company Pick Me saw some 4 million shares trading hands, raising the turnover by Rs. 1 billion within the first hour. “Discussions at the Investor Forum in Singapore managed to get us this investor interest,” Zulfer Zavahir, CEO Pick Me, told The Sunday Times Business.
Rajeeva Bandaranaike, CEO Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), said that listed companies had one-to-one meetings with many foreign investors. He said nearly 150 investors participated.
“Investors like IFC, a few leading international banks and FinTech firms are keen to invest, and we had over 10 potential investor meetings on the same day,” Nilantha Jayanetti, CEO of Sarvodaya Development Finance PLC (SDF), told The Sunday Times Business on Thursday.
He noted that SDF’s commitment towards community development, modernisation of agriculture, women empowerment, and SDGs became a major topic for these investors to look at, adding potential investment opportunities in the company. “These types of forums have also helped us to attract investors to SDF. They have helped us showcase our company to many potential investors. They do their due diligence, and it’s a process which takes more than six months,” he added.
Dr. Harendra Dissabandara, Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said that the CSE price to earnings is around 9.1, which not many countries in this region have, thereby allowing potential investments into the market by foreigners. “The CSE still has undervalued companies, and the financials released by listed companies are strong. The policy consistency, regulatory consistency and the level of regulatory cover have also helped foreign investors look at the market positively,” he told The Sunday Times Business. He said that setting up the central counterparty late last month, which is a requirement in international trading, is a good sign for foreign investors.
The CSE, together with the SEC, will be working towards getting trading days to t + 1, he said, noting that several structural and technical changes need to be made with regard to this.
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