Sri Lankan shares registered their worst session since late April on Tuesday, as industrial, financial and energy stocks pulled down the market for the fourth straight day.
The CSE All-Share index bucked a broader rally in global equities to close down 4.28% at 9,237.05, its lowest since Sept. 1.
Sri Lanka’s central bank is likely to maintain interest rates on Thursday in an effort to get a grip on inflation, which has remained stubbornly high despite a sharp contraction in the crisis-hit economy.
The benchmark S&P SL20 index fell as much as 5% earlier in the day, triggering a temporary trading halt.
The Colombo Stock Exchange halted trading for five minutes from 0441 GMT and conducted an auction session for 25 minutes from 0446 GMT before regular trading recommenced.
Sri Lankan shares on 3-day slide as energy, industrials weigh
The indexes had also slid on Monday after Sri Lanka reduced its petrol prices unexpectedly by 40 rupees over the weekend.
Conglomerates Expolanka Holdings Plc and the local unit of Indian Oil Corp Lanka IOC weighed the most on the index, tumbling 8.8% and 12.2%, respectively.
Trading volume on the CSE All-Share index rose to 188.2 million shares on Tuesday, from 125.4 million in the previous session.
The equity market turnover was 4.54 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($12.7 million), well above the 2.54 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.
Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing 62.6 million rupees worth of shares, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading 4.50 billion rupees worth of stocks, data showed.
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