The Colombo Stock Exchange closed higher on Tuesday, ending a two-session decline, with the All Share Price Index gaining 40.09 points, or 0.20%, to 20,119.64.

The S&P SL20 advanced 20.71 points, or 0.36%, to 5,722.57, the Daily Mirror reported, citing Almas Equities Research.

The session was volatile. The ASPI dipped below 20,100 in early trading before recovering above 20,150 in the afternoon, with late profit-taking trimming the gains.

Turnover improved to Rs 1.52 billion on 61.85 million shares, up from Monday’s Rs 921 million but still below the year-to-date daily average. PickMe led individual counter activity with about Rs 245.77 million, followed by Overseas Realty and Nations Trust Bank.

Crossings made up around 14% of equity turnover, led by Overseas Realty with roughly Rs 182.20 million; John Keells Holdings recorded a Rs 36.59 million block.

Market breadth improved, with 120 gainers against 76 decliners — an advance-decline ratio of 1.58. Foreign investors, however, returned to significant net selling, with an outflow of about Rs 242.48 million.

A disputed figure now settled

Tuesday’s numbers resolve a discrepancy this desk flagged on Monday.

In Monday’s report the Daily Mirror and EconomyNext gave different closing levels for the S&P SL20 — 5,701.86 and 5,708.25 respectively — and the conflict could not be settled at the time, because each account was internally consistent.

Subtracting Tuesday’s gain from Tuesday’s close (5,722.57 − 20.71) implies a Monday close of 5,701.86, matching the Daily Mirror’s figure exactly and not EconomyNext’s. Because an index move is calculated from the true prior close, this is good evidence that the Daily Mirror’s Monday figure was the correct one.

The ASPI reconciles cleanly too: 20,119.64 − 40.09 = 20,079.55, the Monday close all three newsrooms agreed on.

A separate open question remains. Monday’s filings implied a 30 October close of 5,746.40 for the S&P SL20, against the 5,750.64 this desk published on the day. Tuesday’s figures do not bear on that, and Friday’s close should still be treated as unsettled.

EconomyNext’s site returned a server error when checked for this report, so no second account of Tuesday’s session was available.