Sri Lankan shares ended higher on Friday, but logged their worst year since 2008 as the island nation battled a severe economic crisis.

The CSE All-Share index rose 0.7% to 8,489.66 on the last trading day of 2022. It was down 30.5% for the year.

Sri Lanka’s key inflation rate eased to 57.2% in December from 61% in November, its statistics department said on Friday after the market closed.

The country has been struggling with soaring prices for over a year, largely caused by its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades.

Sri Lanka held talks with representatives from creditor countries such as China, Japan and India in mid-December as it aimed to restructure its debt, after years of economic mismanagement and the fallout from the pandemic.

The nation is expecting as much as $5 billion in loans next year from multilateral agencies, besides an International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal, while the government is aiming to raise up to $3 billion.

Industrials and consumer staples were the top boosts to the CSE index on Friday.

Sri Lanka shares end lower as financials and consumer staples weigh

Conglomerate Expolanka Holdings and Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company were the biggest gainers on the index, up 1.1% and 14.2%, respectively, according to Refinitiv data.

The trading volume rose to 239.3 million shares from 124.5 million shares in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover advanced to 1.89 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($5.21 million) from 1.76 billion Sri Lankan rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net sellers in the equity market, offloading stocks worth 87.9 million rupees, while domestic investors were net buyers, purchasing 1.86 billion rupees of shares, the data showed.