Continuing last week’s mixed performance, the Colombo Stock Exchange’s (CSE) benchmark All Share Price Index (ASPI) closed lower on Monday (10) at 21,417.47, marginally down by 0.04%, while the S&P Sri Lanka 20 Index showed a slight positive movement, closing at 5,985.49, up by 0.22%, according to the CSE’s daily market performance report.

The total market capitalisation stood at Rs 7.78 trillion, a 0.24% increase from the prior day’s close of Rs 7.76 trillion. Last week’s market performance saw selective buying, especially with regards to fundamentally sound stocks with low Price-to-Earnings (P/E) and Price-to-Book (P/B) ratios, particularly within the Banking, Leasing & Financial Services, and Real Estate sectors.

Notable weekly gainers included Sierra Cables, which saw its stock move up by 17.67%, Myland Development up by 16.67%, and Renuka Foods up by 14.41%, while stocks like Hunas Holdings and Softlogic Finance faced significant selling pressure, with stocks falling by -12.73% and -9.84% respectively.

Yesterday’s trading activity was driven by a total equity turnover of Rs 3.81 billion and a total of 17,010 trades executed. Domestic purchases amounted to Rs 1.43 billion, while domestic sales amounted to Rs 2.38 billion. Foreign purchases were Rs 24.28 million against foreign sales of Rs 2.38 billion, resulting in a significant net foreign outflow of Rs 2.36 billion. The year-to-date average daily turnover is Rs 162.50 billion, with an average daily share volume of 30.73 million.

The Banking sector saw the highest share volume, roughly 6.45 million, and the Capital Goods sector led in turnover with a recorded Rs 683 million.