CSE to move forward with plans to broaden investor base despite post-Ditwah challenges 

By Shannine Daniel

The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) will proceed with plans to broaden its investor base despite the challenges posed by the Ditwah disaster. These plans will primarily target new domestic investors, aiming to provide opportunities to raise capital and create pathways for investors to exit the market.

According to CSE Chairman Dimuthu Abeysekera, this year has been successful for the CSE, with the market witnessing an improvement of approximately 40 percent since January. Since September 2024, it has increased by more than 100 percent.

“Most of our investors are located in the Western Province. We want to move out of the province. Right now, the stock exchange has ten branches outside of the CSE with brokers involved, but we intend to have a branch in each province,” Abeysekera stated.

Currently, Sri Lanka has more than 900,000 Central Depository System (CDS) accounts; however, according to Abeysekera, only about 50,000 of these are active.

“That’s not even 0.2 percent of the population. We want to increase the number of accounts initially up to about 100,000, and we have to set up a few plans to do so. One such plan is conducting awareness campaigns outside of Colombo,” he noted, adding that many Sri Lankans remain unaware of the stock market, possessing knowledge only of banks and insurance companies.

“When interest rates are down and people deposit their money, they get only about six to seven percent interest. When they have no place to invest their money, due to a lack of awareness, they get caught by criminals who promise around ten to fifteen percent interest monthly. We want to fill the gap so there is another regulated entity for people to invest in,” Abeysekera said.

Abeysekera also highlighted the CSE’s collaboration with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) outside of Colombo, aligning with the SEC’s new initiative ‘Samata Kotasak’ (A share or unit for everyone).

“We are also speaking to many companies and are receiving a lot of applications for bond issuances, such as blue bonds and green bonds. We also had around two new companies float in the market,” Abeysekera said, adding that the CSE is also targeting the involvement of the SME sector and other industries in stock market activities.

Regarding the CSE’s overseas activities, Abeysekera noted that while there were around Rs. 9 billion in divestments last year, divestments reached approximately Rs. 48 billion by November this year due to the 40 percent market expansion.

“Investors took advantage of the market expansion and cashed in on foreign funds because they need to show profits to their owners outside of Sri Lanka,” he remarked.

Abeysekera remains hopeful that stock market prices will increase next year, allowing the CSE to canvas overseas markets. He indicated that the CSE will target the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the next quarter, followed by Europe or the United States.

He made these remarks on the second day of the Sri Lanka Economic and Investment Summit 2025, organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC).