Sri Lanka stocks close up 1.5-pct, banks lead turnover

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Stock Exchange closed up on Thursday, CSE data showed, with the benchmark All Share Price Index moving up 1.49 percent.

The ASPI was up 296.93 points at 20,267.15, while the more liquid S&P SL20 was up 1.26 percent, or 71.63 points, at 5,764.20.

Positive contributors to the ASPI were Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka (up 4.81 percent at 54.50 rupees), Hatton National Bank (up 2.13 percent at 382.75 rupees), Dialog Axiata (up 1.84 percent at 44.30 rupees), Sunshine Holdings (up 5.43 percent at 29.10 rupees), and Sampath Bank (up 2.33 percent at 142.50 rupees).

Vidullanka (down 2.71 percent at 21.50 rupees), East West Properties (down 3.09 percent at 65.80 rupees), Janashakthi (down 2.20 percent at 8.90 rupees), Union Assurance (down 0.90 percent at 66.20 rupees), and LOLC Holdings (down 0.13 percent at 389.50 rupees) were top negative contributors.

Market turnover was 2.27 billion rupees. The S&P/CSE Banks Industry Group led turnover with 658.6 million rupees.

“There were quite a few crossings today and also the market turnover improved quite significantly as well,” Raynal Wickremeratne, Head of Research and Strategy at NDB Securities, said.

Crossings were recorded in Hatton National Bank (375 million rupees), Commercial Bank (90 million rupees), Softlogic Life (76 million rupees), Lanka Reality Investments (46 million rupees), Tokyo Cement (29 million rupees), PickMe (22 million rupees), and LB Finance (21 million rupees). (Colombo/Oct29/2026)