Sri Lankan shares end at record high as industrials gain

Sri Lankan shares closed at a record high for a second straight session on Thursday, helped by gains in industrial and consumer staple stocks.

* The CSE All-Share index settled 0.46% higher at 9,671 points, after scaling an all-time high of 9,687.95 points earlier in the day.

* Conglomerates Carson Cumberbatch Plc and Expolanka Holdings Plc were among the top boosts to the index, rising 9.5% and 1.3%, respectively.

* The equity market's turnover was about 3.50 billion rupees ($17.59 million), according to stock exchange data.

* Trading volume on the exchange fell to 239 million shares from nearly 296.7 million shares in the previous session.

* Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth about 88.3 million rupees, as per exchange data.

* Separately, the World Bank said on Thursday the country's economy will grow by a modest 3.3% in 2021, well below the 7.1% expansion projected for South Asia as a whole, and called for urgent action to address debt risks and rising poverty. 

* The island-nation reported 776 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 522,778, data from the country's health bureau showed.

* It reported 43 fatalities due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 13,185, according to the data.

* About 54.89% of the country's population is fully vaccinated so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/sri-lanka.

($1 = 199.0000 Sri Lankan rupees)

(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi) ((ramavenkat.raman@thomsonreuters.com; https://twitter.com/ramavenkat0607))