Sri Lankan shares ended a tad weaker in thin trade on Monday despite foreign buying as investors sold bluechips ahead of a holiday. The main stock index ended down 0.13 percent at 7,050.21, slipping from its highest close since October 29 hit on Friday.
Foreign investors, who have been net sellers of 3.76 billion rupees worth of equities so far this year, bought a net 64.9 million rupees worth of shares on Monday. The day's turnover was 491.8 million rupees ($3.47 million), less than half of this year's daily average of 1.1 billion rupees. "Overall, there was low activity. Nothing much happened as many people were not in due to the holiday on Tuesday," said Dimantha Mathew, research manager at First Capital Equities (Pvt) Ltd.