Sri Lankan shares pull back from record highs on losses in industrials, financials

Jan 10 (Reuters) – Sri Lankan shares retreated from record highs on Monday and ended over 1% lower as industrial and financials stocks weighed.

* The CSE All-Share index (.CSE) closed 1.23% down at 13,117.07 points. The index settled at record peaks for the last six sessions, with local investors driving the rally.

* The index also haulted its eighth straight session of gains on Monday, having risen 8.63% last week, its highest since late January last year.

* Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth 215.6 million rupees ($1.06 million), while domestic investors were net buyers of shares worth more than 8.61 billion rupees, exchange data showed.

* The equity market’s turnover was 8.81 billion rupees.

* Conglomerate LOLC Holdings (LOLC.CM) and logistics firm Expolanka Holdings (EXPO.CM) were the top drags on the index, falling 2.8% and 2.1%, respectively.

* Trading volume fell to 362.6 million shares from 622.3 million shares in the previous session.

* Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Sunday asked China to help restructure debt repayments as part of efforts to help the country weather a worsening financial crisis, his office said in a statement. read more

* The South Asian country has to repay about $4.5 billion in debt this year, with a $500 million International Sovereign Bond maturing next week.

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($1 = 202.7500 Sri Lankan rupees)

Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel

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