- Gains by over 25% last year
- List is topped by Karachi 100, Moscow Exchange at seconds
The main index of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) is among the top 10 best-performing global indices of 2023 with a gain of 25.31% as the market closed at 10,654 on Friday, according to real-time financial market data platform investing.com.
Accordingly, the list is topped by Karachi 100, the index of the Karachi Stock Exchange with a gain of 54.33%, while the index of the Moscow Exchange takes second with a 43.87% gain and NASDAQ third with a gain of 43.42%.
The top gainers of CSE for 2023 according to investing.com are Radiant Gems International PLC with a gain of 171%, DFCC Bank PLC with 161% and Nations Trust Bank with 149%.
The top losers for 2023 were Lanka IOC (-50%), Softlogic Finance PLC (-49%) and Softlogic Capital PLC (-47%).
The market capitalisation of CSE gained by 10.44% to Rs 4.2 trillion in 2023 as Expolanka (Rs 280 billion), John Keells Holdings (Rs 265 billion) and Ceylon Tobacco Company (Rs 168 billion) remained the market cap leaders in 2023.
The market also saw a net foreign purchase of Rs 4.46 billion in 2023, with foreign purchases exceeding Rs 41.3 billion. Only 3 companies got listed on the stock exchange in 2023 increasing the total number of listed companies to 290.
In March, CSE became the second best-performing stock market in the world just behind Laos with a dollar return of 30%, In August, the All Share Price Index became top performing stock market index in the world for 2023, as it recorded a positive price return of 57.67% as of August 04.
In their equity strategy report in early December, First Capital maintained a main index value range of 11,000-12,000 for 2023 with the market re-rating but, lowered the target for the end of 2024 to a 13,000- 14,000 range due to steeper than anticipated earnings decline in 2023E and slower than expected earnings recovery pace.