Capital Markets

A post-war boom has been followed by a mixed few years for Sri Lanka’s capital markets, with a strong performance in 2014 followed by two slower years. The outlook is now brightening again as the Colombo Stock Exchange, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Sri Lankan government look to build the bourse’s role in the economy. The bourse’s composition is not particularly representative of the economy as a whole, with financial services companies strongly represented in index weightings, for example. Thus the bourse’s indices do not invariably track that of Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic performance as a whole. Yet in recent years there has been a growing understanding that they can play a leading role in economic development, particularly as the country looks to boost private sector growth and foreign investment.

This chapter contains an interview with Dilshan Wirasekara, CEO, First Capital.