The All Share Price Index closed at 20,142.33 on Friday, down 124.82 points or 0.62%, ending a three-session run of gains. The index gave back part of Thursday’s 296.93-point advance but stayed above the 20,000 mark it had regained a day earlier.

The more liquid S&P SL20 fell 23.28 points, or 0.40%, to 5,750.64, EconomyNext reported from Colombo Stock Exchange data. Hiru News reported the same 124.82-point fall and the same closing level.

Turnover was Rs 958.58 million — well below Thursday’s Rs 2.27 billion. The Banks industry group again led, at Rs 185 million. Commercial Bank recorded a crossing of Rs 50.00 million, according to Dewangi De Silva, Assistant Manager for Research at NDB Securities.

Contributors

EconomyNext lists positive contributors to the index — a market-capitalisation weighting, not a ranking by percentage gain — as Union Assurance (up 4.08% to Rs 68.90), Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka (up 1.10% to Rs 55.10), Ceylon Tobacco Company (up 0.59% to Rs 1,795.00) and John Keells Holdings (up 0.55% to Rs 18.20).

Top negative contributors were Ambeon Holdings (down 10.72% to Rs 30.80), LOLC Holdings (down 3.66% to Rs 375.25), Royal Ceramics Lanka (down 2.98% to Rs 42.30), Hatton National Bank (down 1.31% to Rs 377.75) and Dialog Axiata (down 0.68% to Rs 44.00).

The arithmetic, and a figure it settles

Friday’s fall reconciles exactly against this desk’s record of Thursday’s close: 20,267.15 − 124.82 = 20,142.33, to the cent.

The S&P SL20 arithmetic resolves a discrepancy this desk could not settle on Thursday, when EconomyNext put that index at 5,764.20 and the Daily Mirror at 5,773.92 — both internally consistent, so neither could be preferred. Friday’s close of 5,750.64 after a 23.28-point fall implies a prior close of 5,773.92, matching the Daily Mirror’s figure exactly and not EconomyNext’s. EconomyNext’s own next-day filing therefore corrects its own prior-session number. This desk’s Thursday report carried the 5,764.20 figure and has been annotated.

The week, and the session in fuller detail

Update, 31 October: A Daily FT filing published early on 31 October sets the session in its weekly context and supplies figures this desk had recorded as missing.

Despite Friday’s fall, the ASPI gained 2.32% over the week and the S&P SL20 2.36% — so the week closed higher overall, and Friday reversed a three-session rally rather than a trend.

The filing gives 48.6 million shares traded, and foreign investors as net sellers on an outflow of Rs 72.3 million. On breadth, losers outnumbered winners 149 to 54. First Capital Research attributed the selling to profit-taking after the preceding sessions’ gains, with pressure on index-heavy counters including LOLC and Hatton National Bank, describing the market as predominantly retail-driven with subdued overall activity. The banking sector led daily turnover at 19%, with diversified financials and capital goods together contributing 29%.

A conflict on the S&P SL20 close

The Daily FT puts Friday’s S&P SL20 close at 5,746.40, down 27.52 points or 0.48% — against EconomyNext’s 5,750.64, down 23.28 points or 0.40%.

Each is internally consistent, and both reconcile exactly against the same Thursday base of 5,773.92:

The percentages check out on both readings too. This is the shape in which arithmetic cannot arbitrate, so this desk asserts neither figure and records both.

What the two filings do settle jointly is Thursday’s close. Both compute Friday’s move from a prior close of 5,773.92 — the Daily Mirror’s Thursday figure, not EconomyNext’s 5,764.20. Two independent next-day filings now imply the same base, which confirms the resolution this desk reached above.

Not reported

Neither filing gives the number of trades. The Daily FT’s list of the largest drags on the index — given as the ticker codes HNB, LOLC, GREG, DIAL and LAMB — does not match EconomyNext’s negative-contributor list, and because the two outlets do not state that they are ranking on the same basis, the lists are reported separately above rather than merged.

Corroborated by three verified newsrooms. EconomyNext alone carries the contributor lists and the turnover breakdown; the Daily FT alone carries the weekly change, breadth, foreign flows and broker commentary.