Sri Lankan shares drop most in nearly four months as financials, industrials fall

Sri Lankan shares on Tuesday suffered their worst single-day fall since October, led by sharp declines in financial and industrial stocks.

Sri Lanka's CSE All Share Index ended 6.56% lower at 8,005.32, its biggest one-day fall since Oct. 5 last year and its second worst daily performance since late 2005.

The index had hit multiple all-time highs in recent weeks, and had notched a 30% gain in 2021 as of last week, making Sri Lanka one of the world's best performing equity markets this year. With Tuesday's sell-off, the benchmark is now up 18% for the year.

Trading volume on the CSE All Share Index fell to 232.8 million from 2.87 billion in the previous session.

Conglomerates LOLC and John Keells Holdings were the top drags on the benchmark, falling roughly 8% each.

Foreign investors were net sellers, offloading 316.4 million Sri Lankan rupees ($1.6 million) worth of shares, according to exchange data.

Equity market turnover was 6.93 billion rupees, exchange data showed.

The Sri Lankan rupee was last quoted at 193.50 against the dollar as of 1215 GMT, according to Refinitiv data.