The Colombo Stock Exchange finished the trading week lower, with the All Share Price Index down 326.48 points at 21,056 and the S&P SL20 down 73.57 points at 5,928.89, as escalating tensions in the Middle East kept retail investors on the sidelines.
| Week to Friday 18 September | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| ASPI | 21,056.26 | −326.48 (−1.53%) |
| S&P SL20 | 5,928.89 | −73.57 (−1.23%) |
| Average daily turnover | Rs. 1.7bn | vs Rs. 3.8bn YTD |
| Net foreign outflow | Rs. 380m | YTD Rs. 56.8bn |
Hiru News, citing First Capital Research’s weekly market review, attributed the fall to “several factors, including escalating tensions in the Middle East, rising global oil prices and rising bond yields in the secondary market.”
The same week, two different headlines
Hiru led on the weekly decline. EconomyNext led on Friday’s uptick, reporting that stocks “edge up on Friday to close mixed week.”
Both are accurate and both describe the identical move. The ASPI rose 32.83 points, or 0.16 percent, on Friday — snapping a four-session losing streak — while still ending the week 326.48 points below the previous Friday’s close of 21,382.74, which this archive recorded on 11 September.
Both outlets’ figures reconcile exactly against that earlier close, and against each other, on both indices.
One figure does not reconcile. Hiru gives the ASPI’s weekly fall as 1.6 percent. Measured against the level the index started the week at, 326.48 points off 21,382.74 is 1.53 percent. The 1.6 percent figure is what you get by dividing the fall by the week’s closing level instead of its opening one. The S&P SL20 rounds to 1.2 percent either way, so only the ASPI shows the difference. The point movements themselves are not in dispute.
Turnover tells the sharper story
Average daily turnover for the week was Rs. 1.7 billion, against a year-to-date average of Rs. 3.8 billion — the market traded at under half its normal daily volume for five consecutive sessions.
First Capital attributes this to weak retail participation, with uncertainty over the Middle East keeping retail investors out. High-net-worth and institutional buying in selected stocks is what held daily turnover up at all.
Friday itself came in at Rs. 1.34 billion — below even the depressed weekly average. The week’s stronger sessions were therefore earlier in the week, and the market thinned further into the close rather than recovering with the index.
Almost all the week’s foreign selling happened before Friday
Foreign investors remained net sellers, with an outflow of Rs. 380 million across the week, lifting the year-to-date net foreign outflow to Rs. 56.8 billion.
Friday’s own foreign outflow was Rs. 5.91 million. That means roughly Rs. 374 million — around 98 percent of the week’s foreign selling — occurred between Monday and Thursday. Neither outlet makes this split, and it matters: Friday’s modest gain was a locally-driven session that foreign investors had largely stopped participating in by the time it happened.
For scale, the year-to-date outflow stood at Rs. 55.7 billion at the start of September, already more than double the comparable figure a year earlier. Roughly Rs. 1.1 billion has left in the two weeks since.
Where the trading was
Within banking, Commercial Bank (COMB) and Sampath Bank (SAMP) saw active trading. John Keells Holdings (JKH) and Sunshine Holdings (SUN) led the diversified counters, and Parquet (PARQ), Dipped Products (DIPD) and Hayleys (HAYC) were the most actively traded in materials.
On Friday specifically, EconomyNext recorded Capital Goods leading turnover at Rs. 366.9 million, with Dialog Axiata (up 2.00 percent at Rs. 45.90), Melstacorp (up 1.25 percent at Rs. 182.50), Hayleys (up 1.00 percent at Rs. 226.25), Haycarb (up 2.46 percent at Rs. 208.00) and Cargills Ceylon (up 1.85 percent at Rs. 743.25) the top positive contributors. John Keells Holdings (down 0.52 percent at Rs. 19.10), Access Engineering (down 1.28 percent at Rs. 77.40), Central Finance (down 1.14 percent at Rs. 216.00) and Laughs Gas (down 7.69 percent at Rs. 42.00) were the main drags.
Note that JKH appears on Hiru’s list of actively traded diversified counters and on EconomyNext’s Friday negative-contributor list — volume and direction are separate things.
The Middle East link is not abstract
First Capital names Middle East tensions and rising oil prices as the cause, and the week supplied both. Oil had risen through the previous week on the Hormuz disruption before falling 2 percent on Thursday as Saudi Arabia moved to restore its East-West pipeline. On Saturday, after the week’s close, a Houthi ballistic missile was intercepted over Riyadh.
Sri Lanka imports effectively all of its fuel, so the oil price feeds directly into the import bill, the rupee and listed companies’ input costs. The third factor First Capital names — rising secondary-market bond yields — raises the risk-free return available to local investors, which works against equities independently of anything happening in the Gulf.
Not reported
Neither outlet gives the week’s total turnover, the daily breakdown, or market breadth across the five sessions. Neither says which counters drove the foreign outflow, nor whether the Rs. 380 million was concentrated in a small number of names.
Neither gives a figure for how far secondary-market bond yields rose during the week.
