The Colombo Stock Exchange surrendered a strong morning advance on Wednesday, with the All Share Price Index closing down 4.89 points at 20,812.93 — a fall of 0.02% — after having been up more than 117 points before lunch.

The reversal is the day’s story. At mid-morning the ASPI was up 117.10 points, or 0.56%, at 20,934.92, with EconomyNext reporting the market had “opened in green” and trended up steadily on the back of financial services, healthcare and materials counters. Turnover at that stage stood at Rs. 1.17 billion.

By the close the index had given back the entire gain and a little more, finishing 122 points below its mid-morning level.

Where the index ended

The more liquid S&P SL20 held on to its gain, closing up 16.10 points, or 0.27%, at 5,912.50 — so the large-cap index and the broad index finished the session pointing in opposite directions.

Full-day turnover was Rs. 1.55 billion, with capital goods leading at Rs. 557.27 million.

Lion Brewery (Ceylon) was the strongest positive contributor, up 3.25% at Rs. 1,858.75, alongside LOLC Finance (up 3.92% at Rs. 5.30), Hemas Holdings (up 1.31% at Rs. 31.00) and SMB Finance (up 10.00% at Rs. 1.10).

Pulling the other way were Dialog Axiata (down 1.31% at Rs. 45.20), Commercial Bank of Ceylon (down 0.37% at Rs. 202.50), Carson Cumberbatch (down 1.37% at Rs. 720.00) and Bukit Darah (down 2.17% at Rs. 846.00).

The session checks out against Tuesday

Both of Wednesday’s readings imply the same starting point. The mid-morning print (20,934.92 less 117.10) and the closing print (20,812.93 plus 4.89) each resolve to a previous close of 20,817.82 — exactly the level at which the ASPI ended Tuesday, when the index shed 125.97 points and market breadth collapsed to 31 gainers against 163 decliners.

On that arithmetic, Wednesday’s flat close leaves the index still slightly below where it stood on Monday, and turnover up by roughly half on Tuesday’s Rs. 1.01 billion.

One caveat on the record. Daily Mirror’s business desk published a market wrap on Wednesday reporting turnover “crossing Rs. 595mn” and Commercial Bank closing flat at Rs. 204.00. That filing went up at 12:13 p.m. Colombo time — more than two hours before the CSE’s 2:30 p.m. close — and its turnover figure matches Monday’s session, which was the lowest daily total recorded so far this year. It is not an account of Wednesday’s trading, and is not cited here.