The early days of share trading in Sri lanka goes all the way back to 1896 when the Colombo Brokers Association commenced share trading in limited liability companies which were involved in opening rubber and tea plantations, whilst Ceylon as it was called then was still a British Crown Colony.

Following Independence in 1948 from the British and the with the liberalization of the Economy in 1977 , essentially paved the way for the establishment of a formal stock exchange in 1985 which took over the Stock Market from the Colombo Share Brokers Association.

Situated today at the very heart of the commercial district of downtown Colombo, it is one of the most modern exchanges in South Asia, providing a fully automated order driven trading platform using the scrip-less system.

The Exchange has two indices, All share price index and Milanka index. The All Share Price Index (ASPI) tracks all the listed companies and the more capitalized and more volatile Milanka Index tracks select companies that are based on performance criteria. The CSE operates 3 main systems the ATS system, CDS System, and the Debt securities trading system. The CSE is also a member of the World Federation of Exchanges, (FIBV) and the South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE). And has 15 full member firms and 5 trading members as of Jan 2008.

With a market capitalization of US $ 7.3 BN and 237 listed companies covering over 20 sectors CSE provides opportunities to all. For the past few years the bourse has recorded impressive gains exceeding even 40 % in some instances (YOY) so much so that it made many a headline in international news papers as one of the world’s best performers among emerging markets.