Sri Lankan shares log biggest gain in June, trim monthly losses

Sri Lankan shares marked their biggest daily gain in June on Friday, aided by broad-based gains, though the benchmark remained down about 3.1% this month.

The CSE All Share index settled up 1.73% at 21,637.43, but still ended the week down about 0.5%, marking its second straight weekly decline.

SMB Finance PLC and Industrial Asphalts (Ceylon) were the top percentage gainers on the CSE All Share index, rising 50% and 17.7%, respectively.

Trading volume on the index fell to 83.8 million shares from 86.4 million in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover rose to 1.99 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($5.94 million) from 1.66 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers, purchasing stocks worth 39.6 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 1.98 billion rupees, the data showed.