Sri Lanka's main stock index closed lower on Monday, dragged down by industrials and healthcare companies.
** The CSE All Share Index ended 0.21% lower at 6,072.07. It edged up 0.04% last week, marking its third straight weekly gain.
** Sri Lanka's national consumer price inflation rose 5.5% year-on-year in October compared to a 6.4% rise in the previous month, statistics department data showed on Monday.
** Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's finance minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, while presenting the 2021 annual budget last week, said the island nation aimed to more than halve its fiscal deficit over the medium term.
** Liquor maker Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka PLC and oil plantation investor Carson Cumberbatch PLC were the top drags, falling 2.4% and 3.7% respectively.
** Trading volume on the benchmark index fell to 39 million from 51.1 million in the previous session.
** Foreign investors were net sellers, offloading 62.2 million Sri Lankan rupees ($335,853.13) worth of shares, according to exchange data.
** Equity market turnover was 1.24 billion rupees, data showed.
** The Sri Lankan rupee was last quoted at 185.20 against the U.S. dollar.
($1 = 185.2000 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))
