Sri Lankan shares rose for a fourth straight session on Tuesday to close at their highest in more than eight weeks, boosted by industrial stocks.

The CSE All-Share index ended up 1.79% at 7,907.52, their best one-day percentage gain since July 15.

Heavyweights LOLC Holdings and Expolanka Holdings rose 4.6% and 4.5%, respectively.

The country of 22 million is unable to pay for essential imports such as fuel and medicine due to a severe shortage of foreign exchange.

Sri Lankan shares end higher on consumer boost

The World Bank does not plan to offer new financing to Sri Lanka, which is battling its worst economic crisis in decades, until the nation has an adequate macroeconomic policy framework in place, the lender said last week.

On the CSE All-Share index, trading volume rose to 93.5 million shares from 75.7 million shares in the previous session.

The equity market turnover was 2.38 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($6.70 million), up from 1.82 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading 239 million rupees worth of shares, while domestic investors were net buyers, purchasing 2.16 billion rupees worth of shares, the data showed.