Sri Lanka stocks rallied 1.25 percent December 31, but ended 2008 down 40.8 percent, the steepest yearly fall ever, while net foreign buying was the highest on record, the Colombo Stock Exchange said.
The previous steepest fall in the Colombo All Share Index was seen in 1995, at 32.7 percent. In 1992 stocks fell 27.8 percent.
The Milanka index of liquid fell 50.4 in 2008 and ended the year 1631.3 index points. The All Share started the year at 2540.9 and ended at 1503.1.
China ended the year down 65.5 percent, Germany and Japan was down 40 percent, in a record hammering of global markets.
But net foreign buying in the Sri Lankan market was 14.1 billion, Tushara Jayaratne, head of marketing at CSE said. It topped the previous high of 11.2 billion in 2007.
Seylan Bank zoomed 40 percent to close at 28.25 rupees, extending gains from a day earlier amid take-over speculation.
Ceylinco Insurance gained 25 rupees to close at 200 contributing 94 million to the days total volume of 208 million rupees.
John Keells Holdings (JKH) contributed 51 million to the day’s turnover.
JKH was up 50 cents top close at 50, trading 51 million rupees in volume.
