Sri Lankan shares fell for a sixth straight session, to mark their lowest close in 1-1/2 years, led by declines in diversified and banking stocks due to local and global concerns, brokers said. Fears over investors shifting to risk-free assets such as government securities due to rising yields in government securities dented sentiment. The main stock index ended 1.13 percent or 75.96 points down at 6,650.32, the lowest close since July 9, 2014. The index fell as much as 1.4 percent, posting its biggest fall since August 25, 2015.
The bourse dipped further into an over sold territory on Monday with the 14-day relative strength index at 22.844 points versus Friday's 28.357, Reuters data showed. A level between 30 and 70 indicates the market is neutral. "Market is down with a lot of negativity. Local and global concerns weighed with no positive news," said Danushka Samarasinghe, research head at Softlogic Stockbrokers in Colombo. The day's turnover was at 991.2 million rupees ($6.90 million), its highest since January 6. Foreign investors were net sellers of 138.86 million rupees ($965,982.61) worth of equities on Monday extending the year to date net foreign outflow to 1.68 billion rupees worth of equities, as compared with 4.43 billion rupees outflow in 2015.