Sri Lankan shares snap five-day streak of gains as financials weigh

Sri Lankan shares snapped a five-day winning streak to end lower on Friday, weighed down by losses in financial stocks.

The CSE All-Share index closed 0.24% lower at 7,966.95. However, the index posted its seventh weekly gain in eight, rising 1.46%.

Finance and leasing company LOLC Development Finance Plc and conglomerate John Keells Holdings Plc were the top drags on the index, falling 4.9% and 0.9%, respectively.

A total of 1,484 coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours, bringing the island nation's total confirmed cases to 280,543, while deaths rose by 50 to reach a total of 3,661, according to the health ministry's data.

Sri Lankan shares end higher for fifth day as industrials gain

The country has fully vaccinated about 7.26% of its population so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

Sri Lanka's manufacturing sector PMI was 50.4 index points in June while its services sector PMI was 51.3 index points, up 8.3 and 11.8 index points from May, respectively, data from the central bank showed late on Thursday.

Trading volume on the exchange rose to 219.1 million shares from 114.2 million shares in the previous session.

Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth 1.13 billion rupees ($5.68 million), exchange data showed

Sri Lanka tightens foreign currency outflows

The Sri Lankan rupee was last quoted at 199 against the US dollar as of 1215 GMT, 0.25% weaker for the day compared to last session's close of 198.5, according to Refinitiv data.

The equity market's turnover was 3.08 billion rupees, according to exchange data.