BENGALURU: Sri Lankan shares closed higher on Friday, aided by gains in utilities and communication services stocks. The CSE All-Share index settled up 0.75% at 10,966.51.

Sri Lanka’s sovereign dollar bonds slipped more than 1 cent on Friday in their last trading session before the country’s tightly fought presidential election.

The island nation will be voting for a new president on Saturday with the outcome expected to determine the fate of fragile economic recovery led by incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe who is facing off with left-leaning rivals.

Ceylon Beverage Holdings PLC and Pegasus Hotels of Ceylon PLC were the top gainers on the CSE All Share, rising 19.7% and 11.6%, respectively.

Trading volume on the CSE All-Share index fell to 43.8 million shares from 57.5 million shares in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover rose to 1.40 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($4.6 million) from 1.23 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net sellers, offloading stocks worth 19.9 million rupees, while domestic investors were net buyers, purchasing shares worth 1.39 billion rupees, the data showed.