Expolanka Holdings, Richard Pieris & Company fall 4%,14%

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan shares closed lower for second straight session on Tuesday dragged by industrial companies, while investors stayed wary after the country’s central bank Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe and Treasury secretary Mahinda Siriwardana held a news conference to discuss the 2023 budget proposals laid out on Monday.

At the close of trade, the CSE All-Share index fell 0.86% to 8,291.15, weighed by losses in industrial stocks.

On the CSE All-Share index, conglomerates Expolanka Holdings PLC and Richard Pieris & Company PLC were the top drags, falling 3.7% and 13.9%, respectively.

Trading volume on the CSE All-Share index rose to 62 million shares from about 43.5 million in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover was 1.58 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($4.35 million), compared with 941.1 million rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing stocks worth 156.6 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 1.57 billion rupees, data showed.