Sri Lankan stocks closed firmer on Tuesday led by blue chips while local investors picked up retail shares, amid foreign selling from the Indian Ocean island's risky assets before the start of presidential poll campaign. The rupee currency also ended firmer.

Local investors picked up select shares after the former wartime defence chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is seen as a strong leader among the 35 candidates, on Monday filed nominations to contest in Sri Lanka's presidential election scheduled for November 16.

The benchmark stock index ended 0.53% firmer at 5,738.90, rising for the third straight session to further move away from its lowest level since July 22 hit on Thursday. The bourse fell 1.42% last week. So far this year, the index has dropped 5.2%.

Equity market turnover was 300.9 million rupees ($1.67 million), less than half of this year's daily average of about 653.3 million rupees. Last year's daily average was 834.0 million rupees.

Copyright Reuters, 2019

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