Sri Lankan shares snap 6-day run of losses as industrials gain

22 Nov, 2022

Sri Lankan shares snapped six straight sessions of losses on Thursday, lifted by gains in the industrial and energy sectors.

At the close of trade, the CSE All-Share index climbed 2.87% at 8,000.44 to post its biggest intraday percentage gain since Aug. 12.

Sri Lanka’s central bank is expected to keep rates steady on Thursday as inflation shows signs of easing and as authorities focus on discussions to secure a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout to stabilise its crisis-hit economy.

Data released after market hours on Monday showed Sri Lanka’s National Consumer Price Index slowed year-on-year to 70.6% in October after a record 73.7% jump in September.

In Tuesday’s session, industrial conglomerate Expolanka Holdings and energy company Lanka IOC PLC were the biggest boosts to the CSE All-Share index, rising 12.7% and 14.3%, respectively.

Sri Lankan shares on longest losing streak since early June

Trading volume rose to 44.94 million shares from about 36.1 million in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover was 1.51 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($4.13 million), compared with 1.2 billion Sri Lankan rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing stocks worth 174.88 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 1.45 billion rupees, data showed.

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