REUTERS: Sri Lanka shares closed flat yesterday, but ended the week with gains of nearly 1% on hopes of support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to tide over an economic crisis.
The CSE All-Share index ended up 0.03% at 10,455.32 points, and snapped two straight weekly losses. Sri Lanka will seek World Bank assistance to stave off a severe economic crisis in addition to an IMF rescue plan to be discussed next month.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen 70% in the past two years to about $ 2.31 billion, leaving it struggling to pay for essential imports, including food and fuel.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s central bank told Reuters that all coupon payments and bond repayments have been settled in a timely manner and are up to date and there was no payment due on 23 March.
Conglomerate Expolanka Holdings PLC was the top boost to the index, gaining 4.76%.
Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth nearly Rs. 99.62 million, while domestic investors were net buyers, buying Rs. 4.46 billion worth of shares, exchange data showed.
The equity market turnover was Rs. 4.5 billion. Trading volume rose to 95.33 million shares from 50.9 million shares in the previous session.