Sri Lankan shares ended up for a third straight session on Monday, helped by gains in consumer stocks, while a report said that a bailout package for the island nation suffering an economic meltdown was likely delayed.

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Saturday that an agreement with the International Monetary Fund has been pushed back to September due to the unrest over the past weeks, the Associated Press reported.

The CSE All-Share index ended up 0.48% at 7,768.57.

Dairy products maker Kotmale Holdings was the top boost, gaining 24.43%.

The country of 22 million is unable to pay for essential imports such as fuel and medicine due to a severe shortage of foreign exchange.

The World Bank does not plan to offer new financing to Sri Lanka, which is battling its worst economic crisis in decades, until the Indian Ocean nation has an adequate macroeconomic policy framework in place, the lender said last week.

Sri Lankan shares end flat, investors await bailout package

On the CSE All-Share index, trading volume rose to 75.7 million shares from 65 million shares in the previous session.

The equity market turnover was 1.82 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($5.08 million), up from 1.59 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing 43.7 million rupees worth of shares, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading 1.79 billion rupees worth of shares, the data showed.