Sri Lankan shares end lower as IT, industrial stocks drag; posts second weekly drop

Sri Lankan shares closed lower on Friday, hurt by losses in IT and industrial stocks, marking a second consecutive week of declines.

The CSE All-Share Index closed 0.58% lower at 22,701.91 points, capping a 4.3% weekly drop, its steepest drop since the week ended March 6, 2020.

Hunter & Company PLC and Ceylon Hospitals PLC were the top percentage losers in the session on the CSE All-Share index, falling 16% and 7%, respectively.

Trading volume on the index fell to 196.4 million shares from 330.5 million in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover fell to 5 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($16.08 million) from 5.68 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net sellers, offloading stocks worth 886.9 million rupees, while domestic investors were net buyers, purchasing shares worth 4.94 billion rupees, the data showed.

Separately, Sri Lanka started to offload 208 crew members from a second Iranian vessel off its coast on Thursday, a day after 87 people were killed and several others were still missing after a U.S. submarine strike on an Iranian warship in the same region.