"Everybody's dumping -- there are net sellers in the market today following early election results," said Vajira Premawardhana, head of research at LOLC Securities.
"It will be a slow death," he added.
The liquid Milanka Price index, which tracks the most traded 25 stocks, dived 272 points to 3,011.
The day's turnover rested at Rs. 489.49 million with Rs. 79.6 million in foreign purchases and Rs. 51.7 million in sales, according to provisional data posted on the CSE website.
Heavy selling orders were noted across the board led by bluechip stocks in the telecommunications, banking and diversified sectors, brokers said.
"There was panic selling during early trade, but the market recovered with bargain hunters picking up fundamentally good stocks like telecom," noted Dinesh Rahim, investment advisor attached to John Keells Stockbrokers.
Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka's largest mobile phone operator, dominated Friday's trading shedding Rs. 1.75 to Rs. 18.50 on 3.4 million trades.
Shares of Sri Lanka Telecom, the island's largest fixedline phone company, slipped Rs. 3.00 to Rs. 21.75 on 2.2 million trades.
Elsewhere, diversified conglomerate John Keells Holdings, fell 12.50 to Rs. 157.00 on trades of 296,100.
-LBO Newsdesk: lboemail@vanguardlk.com
