The All Share Price Index closed at 20,267.15 on Thursday, up 296.93 points or 1.49 per cent — carrying the Colombo Stock Exchange back above the 20,000 mark it had been chasing all week. It was the third consecutive session of gains.
The more liquid S&P SL20 rose 71.63 points, or 1.26 per cent, to 5,764.20, EconomyNext reported from CSE data. Hiru News reported the same 296.93-point rise and the same closing index level.
The threshold that was missed by 30 points on Wednesday
Wednesday’s session left the index 29.78 points short of 20,000, as this desk reported at the time. Thursday cleared that gap roughly ten times over.
The figures reconcile exactly against the previous close:
- 19,970.22 + 296.93 = 20,267.15 — the stated close, to the cent
- 5,692.57 + 71.63 = 5,764.20 — the stated close, to the cent
The percentages agree as well: 296.93 on a base of 19,970.22 is 1.487 per cent, and 71.63 on 5,692.57 is 1.258 per cent.
Measured from the year-to-date low of 19,640.56 set on Monday 26 October, after a sixth consecutive losing session, the index has now recovered 626.59 points in three sessions.
Banks led the turnover
Market turnover was Rs 2.27 billion. The S&P/CSE Banks Industry Group led turnover with Rs 658.6 million.
“There were quite a few crossings today and also the market turnover improved quite significantly as well,” said Raynal Wickremeratne, Head of Research and Strategy at NDB Securities.
The seven crossings EconomyNext lists total roughly Rs 659 million, or about 29 per cent of the day’s turnover:
| Counter | Crossing value |
|---|---|
| Hatton National Bank | Rs 375 mn |
| Commercial Bank | Rs 90 mn |
| Softlogic Life | Rs 76 mn |
| Lanka Reality Investments | Rs 46 mn |
| Tokyo Cement | Rs 29 mn |
| PickMe | Rs 22 mn |
| LB Finance | Rs 21 mn |
Hiru put turnover at Rs 2.2 billion, a rounding of the same figure rather than a competing one.
What moved the index
EconomyNext lists these as positive contributors to the ASPI — a measure weighted by each counter’s size, not a ranking of the day’s largest percentage gains:
- Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka — up 4.81 per cent at Rs 54.50
- Sunshine Holdings — up 5.43 per cent at Rs 29.10
- Sampath Bank — up 2.33 per cent at Rs 142.50
- Hatton National Bank — up 2.13 per cent at Rs 382.75
- Dialog Axiata — up 1.84 per cent at Rs 44.30
Top negative contributors were East West Properties (down 3.09 per cent at Rs 65.80), Vidullanka (down 2.71 per cent at Rs 21.50), Janashakthi (down 2.20 per cent at Rs 8.90), Union Assurance (down 0.90 per cent at Rs 66.20) and LOLC Holdings (down 0.13 per cent at Rs 389.50).
Distilleries’ move came on the day it confirmed it had absorbed its subsidiary’s beer brewing and distribution operations.
Not reported
Neither filing gives the foreign buying or selling position for the session — the figure that qualified Wednesday’s rally, when foreign investors were net sellers of about Rs 894 million. Neither gives the advance-decline breadth, the number of shares traded, the index’s intraday high or low, or whether the crossings were the cause or the consequence of the improved turnover. Neither attributes the rise to any specific policy development or piece of news.
