Shares snap six-week winning streak

Sri Lankan shares closed lower on Friday, hurt by losses in utilities and IT stocks, marking their first weekly loss in seven weeks.

The CSE All Share index settled down 0.15% at 22,804.84, closing the week 0.24% lower.

But the index closed the month 4.7% higher, marking the sixth straight month of gains.

Convenience Foods (Lanka) PLC and Harischandra Mills PLC were the top percentage losers on the CSE All-Share index, falling 8.7% and 7.3%, respectively.

Trading volume on the CSE All Share index fell to 154.8 million shares from 223.1 million in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover fell to 5.60 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($18.5 million) from 7.78 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

* Foreign investors were net sellers, offloading stocks worth 1.09 billion rupees, while domestic investors were net buyers, purchasing shares worth 5.41 billion rupees, the data showed.