BENGALURU, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares closed lower for a third consecutive session on Tuesday, dragged by losses in industrial stocks.

* The CSE All Share index settled down 0.52% at 11,279.03.

* Sri Lanka's central bank is expected to further loosen monetary policy on Thursday by cutting interest rates, albeit by a smaller degree than previous cuts, as it looks to use the rapid decline in inflation as an opportunity to foster growth.

* Sri Lanka’s consumer inflation rate

more than halved

to 4.6% year-on-year in July helped by falling food prices, the statistics department said on Monday.

* Expolanka Holdings PLC and LOLC Holdings PLC were the top losers on the CSE All Share on Tuesday, falling 1.8% and 1.6%, respectively.

* Trading volume on the CSE All Share index fell to 81 million shares from 169 million shares in the previous session.

* The equity market's turnover fell to 2.93 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($9 million) from 4.38 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

* Foreign investors were net buyers, purchasing stocks worth 307.2 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 2.77 billion rupees, the data showed.

* For a report on global markets, click ($1 = 324.0000 Sri Lankan rupees) (Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng and Janane Venkatraman)