Sri Lankan shares notch eighth straight weekly gain

Sri Lankan shares logged their eighth straight week of gains on Friday, as gains in utilities stocks overpowered losses in IT firms.

The CSE All Share index settled up 0.23% at 16,854.86.

Sri Lanka’s Colombo consumer price index was down 0.7% year-on-year in May after dropping 2% in April, its statistics department said on Friday.

SMB Finance PLC and Ramboda Falls PLC were the top percentage gainers on the CSE All Share index, rising 50% and 21%, respectively.

Trading volume on the CSE All Share index rose to 210.8 million shares from 173.8 million in the previous session.

Sri Lanka shares close flat as energy losses offset other gains

The equity market’s turnover fell to 5.17 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($17.3 million) from 6.43 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net sellers, offloading stocks worth 606.1 million rupees, while domestic investors were net buyers, purchasing shares worth 5 billion rupees, the data showed.