Sri Lankan shares ended lower on Friday, snapping five sessions of gains, while security forces raided a protest camp occupying government grounds in Colombo and cleared out a section of it.
At the close of trade, the CSE All-Share index was 0.19% lower at 7,721.78.
The index rose for the second consecutive week, gaining 3.4%.
Protesters had feared a crackdown was imminent as President Ranil Wickremesinghe imposed a state of emergency in the country from Monday when he was the acting head of state, and many among them regarded him as an ally of Rajapaksa.
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Media footage showed soldiers in riot gear and armed with assault rifles tearing down the camp, set up in April by protesters enraged with the country’s economic collapse that has caused severe shortages of fuel, food and medicines.
The island nation of 22 million is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades, unable to pay for essential imports such as fuel and medicine due to a severe shortage of foreign exchange.
On the CSE All-Share index, trading volume fell to 52.8 million shares from 71.1 million shares in the previous session.
The equity market turnover was 866.6 million rupees ($2.44 million), down from 1.29 billion rupees in the earlier session, according to exchange data.
Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing 142.6 million rupees worth of shares, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading 847.2 million rupees worth of shares, the data showed.
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