Sri Lankan shares ended sharply lower on Monday, recording their worst day in over a year amid broad based losses and steep declines in energy, industrial and financial firms.
The CSE All-Share index was down 4.47% at 11,591.37 points, logging a 2-month low.
While all major sectors ended in the red, conglomerates Expolanka Holdings and LOLC Holdings were the biggest drags to the index, slumping 7.7% and 8.3%, respectively.
Lanka IOC, a unit of Indian Oil Corp, and liquefied petroleum gas supplier LAUGFS Gas were down 8.7% and 7.6% at the closing bell.
Sri Lanka is trying to arrange a payment of $35 million for a shipment of 40,000 tonnes of diesel with just a few days of stocks left, the energy minister said on Monday.
Sri Lankan shares drop for fourth week as industrials, financials drag
Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing shares worth 102.3 million rupees ($506,435.64), according to stock exchange data.
The island nation's domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 4.20 billion rupees, exchange data showed.
The equity market turnover was 4.23 billion rupees.
The trading volume inched up to 221.8 million shares from 219.9 million shares in the previous session.
Sri Lanka's overall rate of inflation as measured by the National Consumer Price Index was 16.8% year on year in January compared to a 14% rise in December.
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