Shares end lower as losses in consumer stocks weigh

REUTERS: Sri Lankan shares ended lower yesterday, after touching a more than four-month high in the previous session, dragged down by losses in consumer and industrial stocks.

The CSE All-Share Index ended down 0.27 percent at 7,856.64.

The index recorded its fifth straight weekly gain last week.

Conglomerate LOLC Holdings and Nestle Lanka Plc were top drags, down 3.7 percent and 6.6 percent respectively.

Lender LOLC Development Finance surged 25 percent to record its tenth straight session of gains.

Sri Lanka reported 255,508 total confirmed coronavirus cases as of yesterday, and 2,985 deaths, according to the Health Ministry data. The island nation has fully vaccinated only 4.13 percent of its total population so far, Johns Hopkins data showed yesterday.

Trading volume on the exchange rose to 60.6 million from 50.8 million in the previous session.

Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth Rs.28 million, exchange data showed. 

Equity market’s turnover was Rs.2.3 billion, according to exchange data.