Sri Lankan shares gain over 1pc on financial, industrial boost

Sri Lankan shares closed over 1% higher on Thursday, helped by gains in financial and industrial stocks.

The CSE All-Share Index ended up 1.07% at 7,516.20, posting gains in six of the last seven sessions.

Conglomerates LOLC Holdings and Richard Pieris & Company Plc were the top boosts to the index, rising 4.9% and 7.9%, respectively.

Sri Lanka reported 3,306 confirmed coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the total to 192,547, while deaths rose by 39 to 1,566, according to health ministry data.

The US government, through the US Agency for International Development, said on Wednesday it had airlifted emergency medical supplies to Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka to help curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

The island-nation also braced for the possibility of an oil spill after a cargo ship laden with chemicals sank off its western coast, in the country's worst-ever environmental disaster.

Trading volume rose to 82.1 million from 75.7 million in the previous session.

Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth 266.3 million rupees ($1.35 million), according to xchange data.

The Sri Lankan rupee was last quoted at 197 against the US dollar as of 1221 GMT, unchanged from Wednesday's close, according to Refinitiv data.

Equity market turnover was 2.83 billion rupees, exchange data showed.