The Colombo Stock Exchange fell for a third consecutive session on Wednesday, with selling broadening across the market as elevated oil prices continued to weigh on sentiment.
The All Share Price Index dropped 128.72 points, or 0.61 per cent, to 21,133.41, closing near the session low after selling accelerated through the afternoon and pushed the index below the 21,200 level. The S&P SL20 shed 29.38 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 5,947.29. The Daily Mirror, citing Almas Equities Research, and Hiru News give those figures identically. Brent crude was indicated at USD 108.75 a barrel, up from around USD 105.68 a session earlier.
Breadth is the story
Market breadth deteriorated sharply. The Daily Mirror counts 46 gainers against 172 decliners — an advance-decline ratio of 0.27 — against 71 and 132 in Tuesday’s session. Hiru puts it at 44 against 157. The counts differ, as they routinely do between the two, but the direction does not.
Hiru reports the ASPI now 6.59 per cent lower year-to-date and the S&P SL20 3.41 per cent lower. Both figures chain exactly with Tuesday’s −6.02 and −2.93 per cent, a useful check that the series is consistent.
One stock, again, carries the tape
Turnover was Rs. 1.63 billion on 69.38 million shares. Food, Beverage and Tobacco led with Rs. 782.27 million, driven overwhelmingly by Sunshine Holdings, which alone generated Rs. 616.14 million — about 38 per cent of the day’s entire turnover. That is the second session running in which a single counter has accounted for close to 40 per cent of all trading, after Lanka Milk Foods did so on Tuesday.
Crossings made up roughly 23 per cent of turnover, well down from Tuesday’s 52 per cent. Stripping them out leaves roughly Rs. 1.26 billion of ordinary participation against Hiru’s year-to-date daily average of Rs. 3.84 billion — still only about a third of a normal day, though modestly above Tuesday’s Rs. 1.07 billion.
Foreign investors were close to flat, with a net outflow of Rs. 8.01 million, against Rs. 63.05 million of net selling a session earlier.
Where the accounts diverge
All three outlets name John Keells Holdings the largest drag, alongside Melstacorp and RIL Property, and all agree Richard Pieris was the strongest positive contributor. The Daily Mirror additionally lists Ceylinco Insurance and Lion Brewery among the largest negative contributors; neither EconomyNext nor Hiru mentions either stock, and EconomyNext instead names Cargills (Ceylon), down 2.06 per cent.
EconomyNext, which filed at the 2:30 p.m. bell rather than in the evening, records slightly different index levels — the ASPI down 122.82 points at 21,139.31 and the S&P SL20 at 5,954.04 — while matching the Rs. 1.63 billion turnover and the Rs. 782.3 million Food and Beverage lead exactly. The gap is consistent with an indicative close being filed before final adjustment. The figures reported by the Daily Mirror and Hiru, which agree to the decimal, are the ones carried here.
