Sri Lankan shares snapped five straight sessions of gains, dragged down by industrial and financial stocks.
The CSE All Share index fell 0.98% to 8,902.24 on Tuesday, marking its worst day since Dec. 21.
Sri Lanka is committed to meeting all its debt repayments and is hoping to complete debt restructuring negotiations in the next six months, the country’s central bank chief Nandalal Weerasinghe said on Tuesday.
The Export-Import Bank of China has offered Sri Lanka a two-year moratorium on its debt and said it would support the country’s efforts to secure a $2.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to a letter reviewed by Reuters.
India has committed to help ease the debt burden of its crisis-stricken neighbour Sri Lanka as part of a possible IMF-supported programme, the international financial institution said on Monday.
Conglomerate Expolanka Holdings and LOLC Development Finance were the biggest drags to the index on Tuesday, down 1.9% and 5.1%, respectively, according to Refinitiv data.
The trading volume for the CSE All Share index fell to 70.6 million shares from 116.3 million in the previous session.
Sri Lankan shares extend gains on financial, consumer staples boost
The equity market’s turnover fell to 1.49 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($4.12 million) from 2.09 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka is expected to hold interest rates steady this week, having raised them last year to their highest in more than two decades.
Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing stocks worth 16.2 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading 1.48 billion rupees worth of shares, the data showed.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.