Sri Lankan shares suffer largest intra-day loss in about 2 years on tariff jitters

April 7 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares closed lower on Monday, amid a global sell-off, dragged by materials and finance stocks.

The CSE All-Share index .CSE settled 4.64% lower at 14,660.45 points, its biggest intra-day loss since April 2022.

Swadeshi Industrial Works SWAD.CM and Ceylon Beverage Holdings BREW.CM were the top losers by index points, down 125 points and 58 points, respectively, on the day.

European and Asian shares and oil prices plummeted on Monday on fears that U.S. President Donald Trump's duties could push up prices, weaken demand and even trigger a global recession.

Trump's government imposed a 44% tariff on the island nation, which will affect about $3 billion of exports, Sri Lanka's finance ministry said in a statement.

Sri Lanka's market slump of 4.6% in a broad sell-off, sparked by new U.S. tariffs, triggered a 30-minute halt, with panic retail selling pushing turnover to 6.5 billion Sri Lankan rupees, brokerage First Capital Research said.

Separately, an International Monetary Fund team is in Colombo for the fourth review of the $2.9 billion bailout and has met with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, along with finance ministry and central bank officials.

Trading volume on the index fell to 188.3 million shares from 218.2 million shares in the previous session.

The equity market's turnover rose to 6.48 billion Sri Lankan rupees from 3.17 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers, purchasing stocks worth 699 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 6.08 billion rupees, the data showed.

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