The Colombo Stock Exchange closed higher for a second straight session on Wednesday, with the All Share Price Index adding 31.14 points, or 0.15%, to finish at 21,085.15 — though the market surrendered most of an early advance to profit-taking.
The S&P SL20 rose 18.64 points, or 0.31%, to 5,947.50, the Daily Mirror reported, citing Almas Equities Research.
The ASPI pushed briefly above 21,200 in early trading before easing back through the day as investors took profits. Hiru News described the session as opening on favourable sentiment following Tuesday’s credit rating upgrade, then retreating from its intraday highs before recovering to close positive.
Thin turnover behind the gain
Turnover came in at Rs. 1.32 billion on 83.44 million shares — a level Hiru put at 43.6% below the monthly average of Rs. 2.3 billion. It attributed what activity there was mainly to high-net-worth participation, with retail investors largely holding back on a wait-and-see basis.
Crossings made up roughly 37% of turnover, led by a Rs. 210 million block in Sampath Bank, which was also the day’s busiest counter at Rs. 233.8 million. Dipped Products (about Rs. 102.25 million) and E B Creasy (about Rs. 99.82 million) recorded the next-largest crossings.
The Capital Goods sector led sector turnover at Rs. 326.8 million — a 25% share by Hiru’s count — followed by Banking and Materials, which together accounted for a further 44%.
Breadth stayed positive, with 110 gainers against 89 decliners, an advance-decline ratio of 1.24. Foreign participation was close to flat: a net outflow of Rs. 2.62 million, against Rs. 10.26 million in inflows and Rs. 12.87 million in outflows.
Commercial Bank was the largest positive contributor to the index, ahead of Dialog Axiata, Overseas Realty, Hatton National Bank and Hemas Holdings. Carson Cumberbatch weighed most on the downside, followed by Lion Brewery, Ceylinco Insurance, LAMB.N and Hayleys.
Hiru’s market card put total market capitalisation at Rs. 7,647.58 billion, with the market trading on a price-earnings ratio of 10.9x and a price-to-book of 1.3x.
Where this leaves the index
Wednesday’s close continues the recovery that began after Tuesday’s Fitch upgrade, which lifted the ASPI to 21,054.01 and reversed a run of losses that had taken the index below 21,000 earlier in the month.
The retreat from the intraday high suggests buying momentum moderated as the session wore on. Positive breadth remains supportive, but turnover at little more than half the monthly average points to investors staying selective rather than committing fresh money.
A note on sourcing: EconomyNext also filed on Wednesday’s close, but its article page returned an unrelated body — a known intermittent fault on that site — so it is not cited here.
