Consumer discretionary, financial stocks boost shares

REUTERS: Sri Lankan shares ended higher yesterday, helped by gains in consumer discretionary and financial stocks.

The CSE All-Share index ended 0.31 percent higher at 8,095.57.

Investment holding company Ambeon Capital PLC and finance and leasing company LOLC Development Finance PLC were the top boosts to the index, rising 24.4 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.

The island nation reported 2,922 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its total confirmed cases to 339,092, while deaths rose by 118 to 5,340.

Data  from Johns Hopkins university showed the country had fully vaccinated about 12.74 percent of its population so far.

Trading volume on the exchange fell to 121.4 million shares, from 186.6 million shares in the previous session.
Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth Rs.983.6 million (US $ 4.94 million), exchange data showed. The Sri Lankan rupee was last quoted at 199 against the US dollar, as of 1217 GMT, unchanged from last session’s close, according to Refinitiv data.

The equity market’s turnover was Rs.2.91 billion, according to the exchange data.