Sri Lanka shares fell for the fourth session on Tuesday on profit taking while foreign buying in Expolanka contributed for the 2.8 billion turnover, brokers said.
The main All Share Price Index (ASPI) closed 1.36 percent or 117.68 points lower at 8,508.53.
“Bourse continued its downward momentum yet another day as sizable selling pressure was witnessed on index heavyweights including LIOC and BIL, as investors urged to collect profits,” First Capital Market Research said.
The more liquid index S&P SL20 closed 2 percent or 55.10 points lower at 2,694.45.
The market witnessed a turnover of 2.8 billion rupees, slightly lower than this year’s daily average turnover of 2.9 billion rupees.
The market saw a net foreign inflow of 1.1 billion rupees. The total net foreign inflow stood at 27 billion rupees so far for this year.
The Paris Club group of creditor nations has proposed a 10-year debt moratorium on Sri Lankan debt and 15 years of debt restructuring as a formula to resolve the island nation’s prevailing currency crisis.
The government is in discussions with Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank to get loans of 1.9 billion US dollars after a reform program with the International Monetary Fund is approved.
A policy loan now being discussed with the World Bank may bring around 700 million US dollars, Coomaraswamy told a business forum organized by CT CLSA Securities, a Colombo-based brokerage.
So far in December ASPI has lost 1.6 percent.
The ASPI gained 0.5 percent in November after losing 13.4 percent in October.
It has lost 30 percent year-to-date after being one of the world’s best stock markets with an 80 percent return last year when large volumes of money were printed.
Lanka IOC pulled the index down to close at 5.7 percent lower at 207 rupees.
Browns Investments fell 5.6 percent to close at 6.8 rupees, and Richard Pieris closed 6.2 percent lower at 24.3 rupees a share.
( source : Economynext)