OREANDA-NEWS. Sri Lankan stocks closed slightly lower on Wednesday amid moderate volumes, slipping for the second straight session as political uncertainty ahead of impending parliamentary elections weighed on sentiment.

Elections to Sri Lanka's 225-member parliament are expected to be announced after April 23 and it is unclear whether the ruling coalition led by President Maithripala Sirisena would contest unitedly or go to the polls separately.

The main stock index edged down 0.09 percent, or 6.68 points, to 7,304.61.

"Though there is buying interest, there is no significant push in the market to go and buy all out, mainly because of political uncertainty," said Dimantha Mathew, manager, research at First Capital Equities (pvt) Ltd. Nestle Lanka Plc slipped 0.02 percent while Dialog Axiata Plc fell 0.83 percent.

Turnover was 986.8 million rupees (\\$7.42 million), well below this year's daily average of 1.41 billion rupees.

Foreign investors bought a net 209.1 million rupees worth shares on Wednesday, extending the year-to-date net foreign investor inflow to 2 billion rupees.

The bourse saw net foreign inflow of 22.07 billion rupees in 2014.