Sri Lankan shares finish nearly flat after previous session's fall

According to Business Recorder, Sri Lankan equities barely moved on Wednesday after the previous session's decline. The CSE All Share index eased 0.02% to 20,812.93, with SMB Finance PLC and Softlogic Capital PLC leading the gainers at 33.3% and 9.9%. On the downside, Hotel Sigiriya PLC and Lighthouse Hotel PLC posted the steepest falls, down 10.2% and 7.6%.

Macro data arrived alongside the session. Sri Lanka's central bank held its benchmark policy rate steady at 8.75%. Consumer prices in Colombo climbed 8% from a year earlier in September, a pace identical to August's, according to the Statistics Department.

Share volume slid to 58.8 million, compared with 69.6 million in the prior session, while turnover climbed to 1.55 billion rupees ($4.69 million), up from 1.01 billion. Foreign investors were net sellers of stock worth 162 million rupees, whereas local buyers were net purchasers of 1.46 billion rupees, exchange data showed.