Sri Lankan shares on Wednesday extended gains for a second straight session supported by financial stocks, with the index clocking its biggest monthly gain in more than one-and-half years.

At the close of trade, the CSE All-Share index was up 2.32% at 9,071.32. For the month, the index surged 17.33%, its highest since January 2021.

Sri Lanka and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached a preliminary agreement on an emergency loan to the crisis-hit country and a formal announcement will be made on Thursday, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing four sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s inflation surged to 64.3% in August after a 60.8% jump in July, the crisis-struck country’s statistics department said after market hours.

On the CSE All-Share index, trading volume rose to 134.8 million shares from 81.3 million shares in the previous session.

Sri Lankan shares snap 5-day losses as industrials gain

Heavyweight LOLC Holdings was the top gainer, climbing 3.1%.

The equity market turnover jumped to 4.26 billion rupees ($12.00 million) from 1.81 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing about 991.1 million rupees worth of shares, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading 3.96 billion rupees worth of shares, data showed.

Comments

Comments are closed.