Sri Lankan shares end lower as industrials, financials drag

Jan 11 (Reuters) – Sri Lankan shares ended lower for a second straight session on Tuesday, dragged down by losses in industrial and financial stocks.

* The CSE All-Share index (.CSE) closed 0.29% down at 13,079.65.

* Conglomerate LOLC Holdings (LOLC.CM) and logistics firm Expolanka Holdings (EXPO.CM) were the top drags to the index, falling 1.9% and 1.4%, respectively.

* Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth 130.9 million rupees ($645,622.69), while domestic investors were net buyers of shares worth 7.85 billion rupees, exchange data showed.

* The equity market’s turnover was 7.94 billion rupees.

* Trading volume fell to 357.5 million shares from 362.6 million shares in the previous session.

* The South Asian country is facing its worst financial crisis in decades with foreign exchange reserves dwindling and debt repayments looming.

* Sri Lanka’s central bank said late on Monday that at a future date, it may consider increasing gold holdings when foreign reserve levels grow.

* The island nation has reported a total of 592,128 coronavirus cases and 15,134 deaths, as of Monday, data from the health bureau showed.

* About 63.57% of Sri Lanka’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

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($1 = 202.7500 Sri Lankan rupees)

Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.

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