Sri Lankan shares end lower as financials, consumer staples drag

BENGALURU: Sri Lankan shares closed lower on Monday, dragged by financials and consumer staples stocks.

The CSE All Share index settled 0.69% lower at 12,235.14 points, it lost 1.6% last week.

LOLC Finance and LOLC Holdings were the top losers on the benchmark index, falling 4.5% and 2.3%, respectively.

Sri Lanka’s new economic transformation law will be presented to parliament this week and will include measures to attract investors and increase productivity, the country’s state minister of finance said on Monday.

Trading volume on the CSE All Share index fell to 53.9 million shares from 82.8 million shares in the previous session.

Sri Lankan shares end higher as consumer staples, financials gain

The equity market’s turnover fell to 1.08 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($3.6 million) from 1.22 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers, purchasing stocks worth 53.9 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 1.05 billion rupees, the data showed.