Sri Lankan shares fall as industrials, financials weigh

Sri Lankan shares closed lower on Monday, hurt by losses in industrial and financial stocks.

The CSE All-Share index closed 1.45% lower at 8,602.16, exchange data showed. The index had closed down 0.84% on Friday, but saw a weekly gain of 0.5%.

Sri Lanka’s key inflation rate slowed to 66% in October after hitting 69.8% in September, the crisis-struck country’s statistics department said on Monday.

The still extremely elevated Colombo Consumer Price Index LKCCPI=ECI (CCPI) reflected a 85.6% jump in food prices in October and a 56.3% climb in the non-food group, the Census and Statistics Department said.

The island nation’s other main inflation measure, the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) that which captures broader retail price inflation, also touched a record 73.7% in September.

Conglomerate Expolanka Holdings Plc and LOLC Holdings Plc were the top drags on Monday, falling 6.4% and 3.2%, respectively.

Trading volume on the CSE All-Share index rose to 42.8 million shares from 41.3 million in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover was 1.08 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($2.98 million), according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing 70.4 million rupees of shares, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading stocks worth 1.06 billion rupees, data showed.