* The CSE All-Share index closed 0.98% lower to 9604.43, after rising
as much as 1% to an October high earlier in the session. The index rose over 2%
over the last five sessions in the run-up to the IMF announcement.
* The IMF late on Monday said its executive board approved a nearly $3
billion bailout for the debt-stricken island nation.
* "Although index started on an uptrend, a sideways moment was witnessed
afterwards mainly on banking sector counters on the back of rising concerns of
the possible domestic debt restructuring," First Capital Research said in a
note.
* A senior economist at Moody's Analytics also told Reuters that Sri Lanka
has a difficult road ahead irrespective of how much funding it receives from
multilateral and global financial agencies.
* Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's National Consumer Price Index rose
53.6% year-on-year in February, after a 53.2% rise in January, the statistics
department said after markets hours on Tuesday.
* Expolanka Holdings PLC and LOLC Finance PLC were the
top drags to the index, falling 5.3% and 2.9%, respectively, according to
Refinitiv data.
* The trading volume for the CSE All-Share index fell to 78.9 million shares
from 98.7 million in the previous session.
* The equity market's turnover fell to 1.48 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($4.65
million) from 1.80 billion rupees in the previous session, according to the
exchange data.
* Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing stocks
worth 70.6 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading
1.43 billion rupees worth of shares, the data showed.
* For a report on global markets, click ($1 = 318.0000 Sri Lankan rupees)
(Reporting by Meenakshi Maidas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)
