Sri Lankan shares closed lower for a fourth straight session on Thursday, hurt by losses in consumer staples and financial stocks.

* At the close of trade, the CSE All-Share index fell 0.65% to 8,034.78

* Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka Plc and Ceylinco Insurance PLC were the top drags, falling 5.71% and 6.95%, respectively.

* Trading volume rose to 50.1 million shares from about 69.5 million in the previous session.

* The equity market's turnover was 976.7 million Sri Lankan rupees ($2.7 million), compared with 1.63 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

* Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing stocks worth 60.9 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 972.8 million rupees, data showed.

* The island nation is in talks for a debt-for-nature swap deal for up to $1 billion, Reuters reported on Thursday.

* Debt-for-nature deals can help as they can produce so-called green bonds, or blue bonds in the case of those that focus on ocean conservation, which appeal to a rapidly growing investor base that wants to meet environmental, social & governance and net-zero goals.

* These deals see expensive bonds or loans written down and replaced with cheaper financing, usually with the help of a credit guarantee from a multilateral development bank.

* For a report on global markets, click ($1 = 363.0000 Sri Lankan rupees) (Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)