Sri Lanka's shares gained on Friday with a record number of trades on hopes of higher profits after top blue chips reported better earnings in their last quarter, analysts said. The Colombo Stock Exchange's All-Share Price Index closed 0.83 percent firmer at 5,161.18 points.
It hit a new record of 5,192.96 on Thursday and is Asia's best performer with a 52.4 percent return so far this year. Bourse officials said the day's number of trades crossed 30,000 mark, the highest in its history. Turnover was 5.4 billion rupees, over nine times 2009's daily average.
Foreign investors bought a net 609 million rupees' worth of shares, but have sold a 13.4 billion rupees so far this year. Deputy Central Bank Governor K.G.D.D. Dheerasinghe on Friday told Reuters the central bank's purchase of $40 million over the past two weeks had kept the rupee from appreciating to 110.
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