The CSE’s Pricey Ten: Sri Lankan Shares Cost More Than Rs.1,000?

The price of shares of more than Rs.1,000 may sound expensive to the average investor, but on the Colombo Stock Exchange, a number of listed companies currently trade above that level.

The latest available September 2026 market data shows a group of Sri Lankan listed companies with price of the shares exceeding Rs.1,000 (USD 3.03), spanning sectors from beverages and tobacco to automotive, tea and consumer products.

At the top end of the market-price table are companies whose individual shares trade at several times the price of many of the CSE’s more widely followed counters.

The Pricey Ten

Rank	Company	Share price*
1	Ceylinco Holdings PLC	Rs.2,856.50
2	Lanka Ashok Leyland PLC	Rs.2,800.00
3	Ceylon Beverage Holdings PLC	Rs.2,800.00
4	InsureMe Insurance Brokers Ltd	Rs.1,841.00
5	Lion Brewery (Ceylon) PLC	Rs.1,800.00
6	Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC	Around Rs.1,770
7	Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company PLC	Rs.1,464.25
8	Diesel & Motor Engineering PLC	Around Rs.1,425
9	Hunter & Company PLC	Rs.1,314.50
10	Kotmale Holdings PLC	Rs.1,250.00

Why is a Rs.2,800 share not necessarily a “bigger” company?

This is where the CSE’s price list becomes particularly interesting.

A company’s share price by itself does not tell investors how large the company is.

For example, Lanka Ashok Leyland, a firm familiar with the mass population in Sri Lanka owing to its famous Leyland Bus, which is widely used in Sri Lanka for public transportation, the share price is around Rs.2,800, but its market capitalization is only about Rs.10 billion.

Ceylon Tobacco, meanwhile, trades at around Rs.1,770 per share but has a market capitalization of more than Rs.330 billion.

The difference is the number of shares issued.

Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the share price by the number of shares outstanding. Consequently, a company with a relatively low share price can be worth considerably more overall than a company whose individual shares trade at several thousand rupees.

What makes the list interesting?

The ten companies also provide a snapshot of some of Sri Lanka’s established corporate sectors.

Ceylinco Holdings represents one of the country’s best-known diversified corporate groups, while Ceylon Beverage Holdings and Lion Brewery put the beverage industry prominently into the high-price group.

Ceylon Tobacco is another striking example. Its individual share price is high, but its much larger number of shares means its overall market value is substantially greater than several companies above it on the price-per-share table.

The presence of Dilmah Ceylon Tea, DIMO, Hunter & Company and Kotmale Holdings also shows that the Rs.1,000-plus club is not confined to one particular industry.

Pricey does not mean expensive in investment terms

There is another important distinction.

A Rs.2,800 share is not automatically more expensive in valuation terms than a Rs.200 share.

Investors looking at whether a stock is relatively highly or lowly valued would normally examine measures such as price-to-earnings ratio, price-to-book ratio, earnings growth, dividend yield, free cash flow and market capitalization, among other factors.

Share splits and bonus issues can also dramatically change the nominal price of a share without fundamentally changing the value represented by an investor’s holding.

Therefore, the CSE’s “Pricey Ten” should be viewed simply as a list of companies with high nominal share prices, rather than a list of Sri Lanka’s most valuable or best-performing companies.

The Rs.1,000 club

The more interesting takeaway for the Sri Lankan market is perhaps the existence of a group of companies whose individual shares command four-figure prices.

For a retail investor, however, the price of one share is only one part of the equation.

The number of shares purchased, the company’s overall valuation, liquidity and the investor’s objectives are far more relevant when assessing an investment.

As Sri Lanka’s equity market continues to attract renewed investor attention in 2026, these high-priced counters offer an interesting reminder that the number printed beside a share on the CSE screen does not tell the whole story about a company.

Source: Colombo Stock Exchange and market-price data. Prices should be verified against the official CSE closing prices for the intended publication date.