Wednesday 12 March 2014

Sri Lanka stocks at 1-week low despite foreign inflows

(Reuters) - Sri Lanka shares fell for a third straight session on Wednesday to hit a one-week low despite foreign inflows as concerns over a proposed United Nations resolution, which may have an impact on the country's economy, dented sentiment, brokers said.

The main stock index fell 0.19 percent, or 11.05 points to 5,933.52, its lowest close since March 5.

Analysts said most investors were waiting for direction ahead of voting on the UN resolution later this month and to assess the impact it would have on Sri Lanka's economy and risky assets.

Shares of top conglomerate John Keels Holdings Plc fell 0.5 percent to 224.50 rupees.

Foreign investors bought a net 95.3 million rupees ($729,800) worth of shares on Wednesday, extending the net foreign inflow during the last six sessions to 236 million rupees.

However, Sri Lanka has seen net selling of stocks worth 5.19 billion rupees in the last 23 sessions as some offshore funds exited, while net outflows so far in 2014 stood at 3.8 billion rupees, after net inflows of 22.88 billion rupees last year.

Sri Lanka last week hit back at a report by the U.N. human rights chief, questioning the independence of the human rights office of the United Nations after the United States asked it to investigate violations by the Sri Lanka government.

The day's turnover was 408 million rupees, less than this year's daily average of about 980.3 million rupees. 

($1 = 130.5750 Sri Lanka Rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)

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