Sri Lankan shares see best one-day gain since March as financials surge

Sri Lankan shares closed over 3% higher on Monday, notching their biggest intraday gain since March, boosted by financial and industrial stocks.

* The CSE All-Share index closed 3.69% higher at 9,269.65 points.

* Commercial Leasing and Finance and conglomerate Expolanka Holdings Plc were the top boosts to the index, rising 49.75% and 9.1%, respectively.

* Sri Lanka central bank said on Monday the country's merchandise export sector has shown a notable improvement in 2021 compared with the pandemic-affected 2020.

* Export earnings have averaged $985 million during the eight months ending August 2021 compared with a monthly average of $837 million in 2020, the apex bank said.

* The equity market's turnover was about 6.77 billion rupees, according to stock exchange data.

* Trading volume on the exchange rose to 202.76 million shares from 135.2 million shares in the previous session.

* Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth about 764.47 million rupees, as per exchange data.

* The island nation reported 1,078 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 513,609, as of Sept. 26.

* It reported 71 fatalities due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 12,680, health bureau data showed.

* About 53.18% of the country's entire population is fully vaccinated so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri) ((Sethuraman.NR@thomsonreuters.com; (+91 8061822737); Reuters Messaging: nallur.sethuraman.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))