Shares drop for fourth week as industrials, financials drag

REUTERS: Sri Lankan shares fell more than one percent yesterday, logging losses for a fourth straight week, weighed down by industrial and financial stocks.

The CSE All-Share index (.CSE) closed 1.77 percent lower at 12,134.04 points. It fell 2.61 percent for the week.
Conglomerates Expolanka Holdings (EXPO.CM), LOLC Holdings (LOLC.CM) and financial firm Commercial Leasing & Finance (COLE.CM) were the top drags to the index, falling between 2.4 percent and 4.4 percent.
Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, picking up shares worth 53.7 million rupees (US $ 265,841.58), while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth Rs.5.10 billion, exchange data showed.

The equity market turnover was Rs.5.15 billion.
The trading volume rose to 219.9 million shares from 133.2 million shares in the previous session.

The island-nation reported 633,051 coronavirus cases and 15,926 deaths as of Thursday, data from the country’s health bureau showed.

About 64.43 percent of Sri Lanka’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.