BENGALURU: Sri Lankan shares closed higher on Friday, after the island-nation and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached an agreement on first review of bailout.
The CSE All Share index settled up 2.46% at 10,850.53, its highest daily rise since July 4.
For the week, the index rose 0.35%, snapping two weeks of declines.
The nation reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF late on Thursday to release the second tranche of about $330 million, but it still needs approval from the IMF management and Executive Board.
IMF mission chief for the country Peter Breuer said on Friday that it is looking for a strong budget and narrower deficit from Sri Lanka, as it seeks funding to bridge the gap between government revenue and expenditure.
Sri Lanka Telecom and C T Holdings were the top gainers on the CSE All Share, rising 5.71% and 14.06%, respectively.
However, trading volume on the CSE index fell to 36.7 million shares from 50.3 million shares in the previous session.
The equity market’s turnover fell to 910 million Sri Lankan rupees ($2.8 million) from 1.13 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.
Foreign investors were net sellers, offloading stocks worth 122.2 million rupees, while domestic investors were net buyers, purchasing shares worth 823.7 million rupees, the data showed.
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