Sri Lankan shares ended slightly lower on Wednesday, dragged down by industrial and consumer stocks, with the island nation in talks with the World Bank to extend its support to tide through the country's worst financial crisis in decades.

* The CSE All-Share index closed 0.34% lower at 7,598.04. It fell 14.4% in April in its third consecutive monthly drop. It has slumped nearly 38% this year so far.

* The World Bank has promised financial aid to help Sri Lanka overcome its economic crisis, while the island nation has also appealed to multiple countries and multilateral organisations for bridge financing until it gets aid from the International Monetary Fund.

* Sri Lanka plans to replace its current "unrealistic" budget and is in talks with the World Bank to extend its support by $300 million to $700 million, the country's finance minister said.

* The stock market was closed on Monday and Tuesday for holidays.

* Heavyweight Expolanka Holdings was the top drag, falling 4.13%.

* The equity market turnover was 1.06 billion Sri Lankan rupees, compared with 2.5 billion Sri Lankan rupees in the previous session.

* Trading volume slipped to 46.9 million shares from 120.5 million shares in the previous session.

* Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing shares worth 63 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading 1.04 billion rupees worth of shares, exchange data showed.

* For a report on global markets, click (Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)