Sri Lanka's main stock index closed higher on Wednesday, driven by a surge in consumer staple companies, ahead of the country's monetary policy review on Thursday.
** The CSE All Share Index ended 0.89% higher at 6,141.79.
** The island nation on Wednesday reported that its manufacturing activity indicated subdued performance in October due to the adverse impact of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic that started early this month.
** Sri Lanka's central bank said the country's manufacturing purchasing managers' index declined to 40.3 in October 2020 with a significant decline in production, new orders, employment, particularly in the apparel and food and beverages sectors.
** Sri Lanka is heavily reliant on tourism and garment exports for foreign exchange reserves.
** Conglomerates John Keells Holdings Plc and Melstacorp PLC were the top boosts to the benchmark, rising 2.1% and 6.9%, respectively.
** Trading volume on the main index rose to 88.4 million from 47 million in the previous session.
** Foreign investors were net sellers, offloading 309.5 million Sri Lankan rupees ($1.67 million) worth of shares, according to exchange data.
** Equity market turnover was 2.5 billion Sri Lankan rupees, data showed.
** The Sri Lankan rupee was last quoted at 185.60 against the U.S. dollar.
($1 = 185.6000 Sri Lankan rupees)
(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi) ((Sethuraman.NR@thomsonreuters.com; (+91 8061822737); Reuters Messaging: nallur.sethuraman.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))