BENGALURU: Sri Lankan shares closed higher on Friday, aided by a gain in energy and consumer staple stocks. The CSE All Share index settled up 0.17% at 11,947.43, snapping two straight sessions of declines.

The index is down 1.6% for the week, marking its fourth straight weekly fall.

The island nation will save $3 billion in debt write-offs from commercial creditors once a provisional deal to restructure its debt with international bondholders is completed, president Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Friday.

Blue Diamonds Jewellery Worldwide and Industrial Asphalts (Ceylon) PLC were the top gainers on the CSE All Share, rising 33.33% each.

Trading volume on the CSE All Share index fell to 21.6 mln million shares from 59.8 million shares in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover fell to 472.5 million Sri Lankan rupees ($1.6 million) from 1.96 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers, purchasing stocks worth 39.4 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 450.9 million rupees, the data showed.