Sri Lankan shares closed higher on Thursday, boosted by gains in industrials and consumer staples stocks.
* The CSE All-Share index settled up 0.54% at 8,140.76.
* Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka and conglomerate Melstacorp Plc were among the top boosts to the index, adding 3.1% and 3.5%, respectively.
* The island nation reported 1,940 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its total confirmed cases to 301,832, while deaths rose by 63 to a total of 4,258.
* Data from Johns Hopkins showed the country had fully vaccinated about 8.65% of its population so far.
* Trading volume on the exchange rose to 142.3 million shares from 75.1 million shares in the previous session.
* Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth 213.6 million rupees ($1.07 million), exchange data showed.
* The equity market's turnover was 2.49 billion rupees, the exchange data further showed.
($1 = 199.0000 Sri Lankan rupees)
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber) ((ramavenkat.raman@thomsonreuters.com; https://twitter.com/ramavenkat0607;))
