Sri Lankan shares closed more than 1% lower for a second straight session on Tuesday, hurt by losses in industrial and financial stocks.

At the end of trade, the CSE All-Share index was down 1.64% at 7,238.59.

Sri Lanka is currently facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades, unable to pay for essential imports such as fuel and medicine due to a severe shortage of foreign exchange.

The island nation will present a debt restructuring plan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the end of August, in a bid to win approval for a four-year funding programme, the prime minister said on Tuesday.

Sri Lankan shares end lower as industrial stocks fall

After reaching a staff-level agreement with the IMF, Sri Lanka aims to hold a donor conference with China, India and Japan to secure more loans, the prime minister told lawmakers.

Sri Lanka’s central bank is expected to raise interest rates on Thursday to fight record-high inflation and move forward bailout talks with the IMF.

Ten of a dozen economists and analysts said they expected a rate increase ranging between 100 and 300 basis points, a Reuters poll showed.

On the CSE All-Share index, trading volume halved to 52.6 million shares from 109.8 million shares in the previous session.

Conglomerate Expolanka Holdings Plc and LOLC Development Finance Plc were the top losers on the index, dropping 5.5% and 15.2% respectively.

The equity market turnover was 916.3 million rupees ($2.58 million), according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing 40.6 million rupees worth of shares, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading 896.3 million rupees worth of shares, the data showed.