Sri Lankan shares ended lower on Wednesday for a third straight session, dragged down by losses in financials and consumer staples stocks.
* The CSE All Share Index closed 1.06% lower at 7,044.56.
* In economic news, Sri Lanka's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.3% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2020, the statistics department said late on Tuesday.
* However, GDP contracted 3.6% during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the island nation recording declines in all its three major economic sectors — agriculture, industry and services — for the first time in history.
* Among individual stock moves on Wednesday, LB Finance Plc and conglomerate Expolanka Holdings were the top two drags on the CSE All Share index, falling 76.3% and 3.3%, respectively.
* Trading volume fell to 38.9 million from 83.2 million in the previous session.
* Foreign investors were net sellers, offloading 192.6 million Sri Lankan rupees ($965,413.53) worth of shares, according to exchange data.
* Equity market turnover was 853.1 million rupees, exchange data showed.
* The Sri Lankan rupee was quoted at 199.5 against the dollar as of 1143 GMT, according to Refinitiv data.
($1 = 199.5000 Sri Lankan rupees)
(Reporting by Philip George in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.) ((p.george@thomsonreuters.com))
