Sri Lanka stocks close up, banks lead turnover

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Stock Exchange closed higher on Thursday, CSE data showed, with the benchmark All Share Price Index moving up 0.33 percent.

The ASPI was up 67.97 points at 20,880.90, while the more liquid S&P SL20 was up 0.14 percent, or 8.30 points, at 5,902.46.

Positive contributors to the ASPI were Dialog Axiata (up 1.33 percent at 45.80 rupees), Singer (Sri Lanka) (up 2.88 percent at 78.60 rupees), Carson Cumberbatch (up 1.32 percent at 729.50 rupees), LOLC Holdings (up 1.72 percent at 443.00 rupees), and Commercial Bank of Ceylon (up 0.25 percent at 203.00 rupees).

LOLC Finance (down 3.77 percent at 5.10 rupees), Sri Lanka Telecom (down 1.29 percent at 83.90 rupees), and People’s Leasing & Finance (down 2.78 percent at 17.50 rupees) were top negative contributors.

Market turnover was 1.43 billion rupees. The banking sector led turnover with 489.34 million rupees, followed by capital goods with 421.33 million rupees.

Crossings in Sampath Bank recorded a turnover of around 230 million rupees, with crossings also seen in Access Engineering, Lanka IOC, Hatton National Bank, and John Keells Holdings.

“Apart from that, there wasn’t anything significant to talk about. It was a fairly normal trading day,” Raynal Wickremeratne, Head of Research and Strategy at NDB Securities, said.

“I think we saw about 1.4 billion in turnover, which definitely showed a bit of an improvement, and today the market was also up by about 65 to 70 points. There is a slight renewal in sentiment, but I don’t think this is properly indicative of a long-term trend as such. This is more a cycle—every time there is a bit of a decline, you see people coming back to some good companies,” Wickremeratne said.  (Colombo/Oct01/2026)