Sri Lankan shares fall for fourth session as consumer staples, financials weigh

Sri Lankan shares closed lower on Thursday, extending losses for a fourth straight session, dragged down by consumer staples and financials stocks.

The CSE All-Share index settled 1.05% lower at 19,717.92 points.

Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka and Hatton National Bank were the biggest decliners, falling 3.6% and 1.2%, respectively.

Trading volume on the index slipped to 64.3 million shares from 65.2 million shares in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover dipped to 1.10 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($3.31 million) from 1.46 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers, purchasing stocks worth 90.3 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 1.05 billion rupees, the data showed.