Sri Lanka's stock market gained on Friday for the second day led by heavyweights and blue chips while retail speculative buying continued as the bourse recovered from near oversold territory, while the rupee edged up before closing flat. The island nation's main share index closed 0.53 percent or 35.64 points firmer at 6,783.55. It hit a two-month low on Wednesday.
It is still Asia's best performer with a return of 2.23 percent on the year. The bourse witnessed a foreign outflow of 11.6 million rupees on Thursday, and thus far in 2011, offshore investors have sold 17 billion after a record 26.4 billion in 2010. Sri Lanka's banking sector pushed the market up.
Turnover was 2.4 billion Sri Lanka rupees ($25.4 million), in line with last year's average of 2.4 billion, but less than this year's 2.7 billion. Friday's total volume was 107.4 million, against a five-day average of 76.3 million. The 30-day and 90-day average trading volumes were 154.8 million and 142.3 million. Last year's daily average was 67.9 million.