Trading at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has been halted twice in the early hours of today (11) as the S&P SL20 index, which includes the 20 largest and most liquid stocks in the country dropped by over 5%. This is the second time within two weeks that CSE halted its trading activities due to the drop in the S&P SL20 index. Market was halted for 30 minutes due to the S&P SL20 index dropping over 5% from the previous close, as set out in SEC Directive dated 30 April 2020. The halt was lifted at 12.15 p.m. However, minutes after resuming trading, market was halted for 30 minutes due to the S&P SL20 index dropping over 7.5% from the previous close. The halt was to be lifted at 12.48 p.m. Trading was halted for 30 minutes each on two occasions during the day based on the three-tiered circuit breaker structure CSE introduced last year. Under the structure’s first circuit breaker, the trading will be automatically halted for 30 minutes when the S&P SL20 index drops by 5%. Under the second circuit breaker, if the index drops by a further 2.5% after recommencing the trading following a period of 30 minutes due to being declined by 5% on the same day, another market halt of 30 minutes will be imposed automatically. Finally, under the third circuit breaker, after recommencing trading after two cooling off periods of 30 minutes following the S&P SL20 drop of 2.5%, by which point S&P SL20 has dropped by 7.5% for the day, if the index declines further by 2.5%, trading will be halted and the market will be closed for the day. The decline of the index comes amidst CSE being recognised as the best performing stock exchange in the world last month by Bloomberg.