Sri Lankan shares ended higher for a second straight session on Tuesday, helped by gains in the financial and consumer sectors, ahead of a two-day market holiday.

The CSE All-Share Index closed up 0.6% at 7,278.24.

Conglomerate LOLC Holdings and ground freight and logistics group were the top two boosts to the index, rising 2.2% and 3.2%, respectively.

Sri Lanka reported 2,971 new cases of COVID-19 in the past day, with the death toll reaching 1,243 and only about 1.53% of the country's population being fully vaccinated so far, as per Johns Hopkins data.

The United States on Monday warned against travel to the island nation due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.

Trading volumes fell to 51.3 million from 101 million in the previous session.

Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth 173.2 million Sri Lankan rupees ($876,962.03), according to exchange data.

Equity market turnover was 1.09 billion rupees, the data showed.

The Sri Lankan rupee was last quoted at 197.50 against the US dollar as of 1205 GMT, according to Refinitiv data.