Colombo shares finish week higher despite Friday fall; four-session gain is not the full-week result

Colombo's benchmark share index ended the week at 22,024.18 on Friday, down 133.22 points, or 0.60 percent, on the day but 784.53 points above the previous Friday. The result leaves the market higher over the full week even after a pullback following Thursday's Budget presentation.

The distinction matters because a 4.32 percent rise reported for the four sessions through Thursday is not the final five-session weekly performance. The ASPI rose from 21,239.65 on 6 November to 22,157.40 on Thursday, gaining 917.75 points before Friday's decline reduced that advance. Those are different reporting windows, not contradictory closing prices.

A stronger week, but foreign selling persists

On Friday the more liquid S&P Sri Lanka 20 index fell 67.55 points, or 1.06 percent, to 6,298.02. Turnover was Rs.3.23 billion, with capital goods accounting for Rs.869.21 million. HNB, Richard Pieris, LOLC Holdings, Sampath Bank and Singer were among the main negative contributors, while Dialog, Distilleries, Aitken Spence, Ceylon Tobacco and LOLC Finance supported the index.

Across the four sessions to Thursday, turnover totalled Rs.19.09 billion, averaging Rs.4.77 billion a day against a year-to-date average of Rs.3.44 billion. Market capitalisation rose by roughly Rs.319 billion to Rs.7.96 trillion. Foreign investors nevertheless sold a net Rs.1.33 billion over that four-day period, and local investors accounted for more than 90 percent of trading on three days. These figures should not be silently relabelled as Friday-inclusive totals.

NDB Securities research head Raynal Wickremeratne identified construction and renewable energy as sectors positioned to benefit from proposed public investment and support. That is an analyst's assessment of the Budget's possible effects, not a promise of future share-price gains. Weekly index gains also do not establish that every company or investor gained.