Sri Lankan shares closed over 3% higher on Monday, notching their biggest intraday gain since March, boosted by financial and industrial stocks.

The CSE All-Share index closed 3.69% higher at 9,269.65 points.

Commercial Leasing and Finance and conglomerate Expolanka Holdings Plc were the top boosts to the index, rising 49.75% and 9.1%, respectively.

Sri Lanka central bank said on Monday the country's merchandise export sector has shown a notable improvement in 2021 compared with the pandemic-affected 2020.

Export earnings have averaged $985 million during the eight months ending August 2021 compared with a monthly average of $837 million in 2020, the apex bank said.

Sri Lankan shares close higher as industrial stocks surge

The equity market's turnover was about 6.77 billion rupees, according to stock exchange data.

Trading volume on the exchange rose to 202.76 million shares from 135.2 million shares in the previous session.

Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading shares worth about 764.47 million rupees, as per exchange data.

The island nation reported 1,078 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 513,609, as of Sept. 26.

It reported 71 fatalities due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 12,680, health bureau data showed.

About 53.18% of the country's entire population is fully vaccinated so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.