Shares end lower as industrials, financials weigh

REUTERS: Sri Lankan shares ended lower yesterday, dragged by industrials, financial and consumer staples stocks. The CSE All-Share index fell 2.4 percent to 8,011.94, its biggest percentage loss since April 20 this year.

Conglomerates LOLC Holdings, Expolanka Holdings and Browns Investments were the top drags, ending the session down 6.18 percent, 6.17 percent and 5.8 percent respectively. The island nation reported 2,561 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its total confirmed cases to 318,775, while deaths rose by 82 to 4,727. Data from Johns Hopkins University showed the country had fully vaccinated about 11.85 percent of its population so far. Trading volume on the exchange fell to 242.7 million shares from 245.01 million shares in the previous session. Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, onloading shares worth Rs. 66.7 million, exchange data showed. The equity market’s turnover was Rs.5.07 billion, according to the exchange data.