Oct 22 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan stocks slumped on Monday to their lowest level in six weeks with turnover skidding to a two-month low on retail selling on margin calls ahead of the central bank's board meeting on rate policy later in the day.
The Colombo Stock Exchange's main index fell 1.69 percent, or 95.64 points, to 5,553.89, its lowest close since Sept. 7.
"There is selling pressure as some brokers forced retailers to settle debts and they had to come down and sell at lower prices," a stockbroker said on condition of anonymity.
Analysts said investors remained on the sidelines ahead of an announcement on central bank monetary policy due on Tuesday.
The day's turnover was 257.1 million rupees ($1.99 million), lowest since August 17 and less than a third of this year's daily average of 945 million rupees.
The market saw a net foreign inflow of 36 million rupees, extending the net offshore inflow to 33.55 billion rupees so far this year.
The rupee ended weaker at 129.75/80 to the dollar compared to Friday's close of 129.10/20, on seasonal importer demand for dollars, dealers said. ($1 = 129.0250 Sri Lanka rupees) (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Ron Popeski)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/markets-srilanka-idINL3E8LM5XQ20121022