Leading investment services firm Asia Securities brought together corporate leaders, leading economists and over 150 investors at the Sri Lanka Investor Conference 2026 themed “Rebuild. Digitize. Reprice”, held at Cinnamon Life recently, to examine Sri Lanka’s capital market outlook for the year.

The conference unpacked the economic shifts of 2025 and early 2026, the evolving interest rate and fiscal environment, and sector-level opportunities through a series of presentations and panel discussions. It was an exclusive event for Asia Securities clients, representing some of the most active and influential participants in Sri Lanka’s capital markets.

The keynote address was delivered by economic policy expert Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja, Professorial Fellow at Gateway House in Mumbai, Senior Fellow at ODI Global in London, and former Director of Research at the ADB Institute in Tokyo.

Dr. Wignaraja said the evidence does not point to a climate debt trap following Cyclone Ditwah and that cyclical growth of around 4% remains sustainable for 2026, although risks such as inflation are emerging. He added that Sri Lanka’s economic systems tend to resist gradual change, requiring “big bang”, stroke-of-the-pen reforms to unlock faster, productivity-driven and inclusive growth.

The opening macroeconomic panel, ‘Rebuild: Boon or Bane?’, featured Dr. Wignaraja alongside John Keells Holdings Chairman and Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Krishan Balendra, and Asia Securities Chairman Dumith Fernando.

Balendra observed that the cyclone’s impact on business was far less severe than initially feared, with critical sectors such as agriculture, tourism, banking and exports only marginally affected. He said consumption rebounded quickly, pointing to limited damage to household incomes, and identified tourism, construction, ICT and consumption as the four key growth sectors for 2026.

Building on his keynote remarks, Dr. Wignaraja said the IMF programme has put in place a framework for prudent fiscal and monetary policy, debt management and institutional reform to address Sri Lanka’s chronic twin deficits. He stressed that safeguarding an independent Central Bank is essential, and that bipartisan support is needed to prevent reform backsliding, drawing parallels with Southeast Asia and India.

Fernando said fixed income rates are likely to remain benign, limiting major asset allocation shifts. He noted a growing investor preference for equities due to tax advantages, highlighting that active CSE investors rose to 98,000 in 2025, with new accounts tripling year-on-year. He added that improving fundamentals and sectoral performance should support equity market growth in 2026. He also emphasized that achieving 20-25% growth for the year in equity valuations could be achieved with primarily local investor participation, and that any significant rise in foreign participation would only support the market further.

The construction sector session, ‘The Big Resumption’, featured Access Engineering Executive Vice Chairman Christopher Joshua and Tokyo Cement Group Director – Innovations Praveen Gnanam.

Joshua said the construction sector’s contribution to GDP is expected to reach around 5% in 2026, supported by infrastructure projects already under way such as Central Expressway Section 1 and port developments, as well as upcoming projects including the new airport terminal and Central Expressway Phase 3, alongside Cyclone Ditwah reconstruction and other projects in the pipeline. 

Gnanam noted that cement demand increased to 5.3 million metric tonnes in 2025 from 4.6 million metric tonnes in 2024, and that similar or faster growth is expected in 2026. He explained that infrastructure played only a limited role in 2025, with activity concentrated in residential and commercial segments, but that the pipeline of infrastructure projects in 2026 should strengthen sector momentum.

The consumer sector was examined in ‘The Normalisation Catalyst’ panel, featuring Sunshine Holdings Executive Director and Group CEO Shyam Sathasivam, Hemas Holdings Group CEO Ashish Chandra, and PepperCube Consultants Founder and CEO Atheek Marikar.

Sathasivam said 2025 has been a year of confidence building for both the FMCG sector and the wider economy, pointing to value migration in Sunshine Holding’s tea portfolio and strong growth in premium confectionery products. He also noted a gradual return of discretionary spending, with the strongest rebound seen in rural markets. 

Chandra said the FMCG industry recorded 10% volume growth and a 15% increase in value over the past year, signalling a clear premiumization trend. He added that home and personal care shifted from a 3% contraction in 2024 to 11% growth in 2025, driven mainly by non-essential categories such as perfumes and deodorants, reflecting rising discretionary demand. 

Marikar said around 35% to 40% of households currently earn more than they spend each month, compared with about 65% in 2015. He added that while food and beverage has returned to pre-crisis levels, personal and household care lag behind, leaving room for growth of roughly 15% across those segments.

The final panel, ‘Playing the Long Innings’, focused on Sri Lanka’s digital outlook and included Dialog Axiata Group Chief Executive Supun Weerasinghe, Digital Mobility Solutions Lanka (PickMe) Founder and CEO Jiffry Zulfer, and Surge Global Founder and CEO Bhanuka Harischandra.

Weerasinghe said around 40% of mobile subscribers remain on 2G and must be migrated to broadband to realize Sri Lanka’s digital economy vision. He added that the data usage gap, currently about half the regional average, needs to be closed by addressing connectivity and speed constraints. On home broadband, he said Sri Lanka should target five-times growth to align with peers in the region. 

Zulfer called for policies that enable digital entrepreneurship, affordable high-quality connectivity infrastructure, and sustained efforts to nurture local talent while reintegrating talent lost through brain drain. He also stressed the need for government leadership to allow the private sector to digitize public services and translate digital ambition into a functioning digital economy. 

Harischandra said technology adoption has expanded as younger generations have grown up immersed in digital tools, and that the government has laid a foundation for a digital economy that will be difficult to dismantle. He noted that many structural hurdles have been overcome and that it is only a matter of time before Sri Lanka experiences exponential digital growth.

The conference also featured a Macroeconomic Outlook presentation by Asia Securities Chief Economist Sanjeewa Fernando, who said Sri Lanka is moving toward a potential credit rating upgrade, supported by improving GDP, higher tax revenue and declining debt service relative to revenue. He added that the global policy environment is increasingly supportive of renewed inflows into Emerging and Frontier Market assets, typically beginning with fixed income before broadening into equities.

This was followed by an Equity Strategy presentation by Asia Securities Head of Equity Research Niroshan De Silva, who said corporate earnings are expected to reach new highs, with projected growth of 18% in 2026. He forecast the ASPI at 27,400 by the end of 2026, supported by earnings expansion and broadly stable valuation multiples, and picked the Construction sector to be the main growth driver, followed by the Banking and Finance and Consumer sectors.

Founded in 1990, Asia Securities is one of Sri Lanka’s leading investment firms, with a 35-year legacy across Equities, Research, Investment Banking and Wealth Management.