Sri Lankan shares fell for the fifth straight session on Monday and closed at their lowest in more than one week, as investors sold banking and telecom stocks, while the rupee ended weaker due to importer dollar demand. The country's benchmark stock index ended 0.09% down at 5,889.67, its lowest close since July 26. The bourse gained 0.37% last week, recoding its sixth straight weekly gain.
So far this year, the index is down about 2.7%. Turnover was 534.3 million rupees ($3.02 million), less than this year's daily average of about 640.4 million rupees so far. Last year's daily average came in at 834 million rupees. Foreign investors bought a net 60.9 million rupees worth of shares on Monday, extending the year-to-date net foreign buying to 574.8 million rupees worth of equities, according to index data.