Sri Lankan shares snap seven-day winning run as financials drag

Sri Lankan shares closed lower on Friday, snapping seven straight sessions of gains, as financial and industrial companies weighed on the benchmark index.

The CSE All-Share index ended 0.28% higher at 9,459.94. For the week, it surged 5.62% to mark a second straight weekly gain.

Conglomerate Expolanka Holdings Plc and LOLC Development Finance were the top drags to the index, falling 1.51% and 2.84%, respectively.

Sri Lankan central bank's governor unveiled a six-month roadmap for putting the economy back on track and assured global investors and lenders of timely debt repayments while maintaining macroeconomic stability.

Sri Lankan shares post best quarterly show in 11 years

The equity market's turnover was about 5.28 billion rupees, according to stock exchange data.

Trading volume on the exchange rose to 520 million shares from 284.5 million shares in the previous session.

Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing shares worth about 29.3 million rupees, as per exchange data.

The island nation reported 912 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 517,377.

It reported 59 fatalities due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 12,906, health bureau data showed.

About 53.80% of the country's entire population is fully vaccinated so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.