BENGALURU: Sri Lankan shares gained on Friday, after the country’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged as widely expected, in the wake of a newly elected president taking over the reins of the island country.

The CSE All-Share index settled up 0.87% at 11,773.9.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka kept interest rates steady, citing domestic and global uncertainties, but said inflation was likely to remain low and the economy was doing much better than initially expected.

The central bank kept the Standing Deposit Facility Rate at 8.25% and the Standing Lending Facility Rate at 9.25%.

Industrial Asphalts (Ceylon) and Kotmale Holdings were the top percentage gainers on the CSE All-Share index, rising 33.3% and 17.1%, respectively.

Sri Lanka shares end flat as IT losses offset financial gains

Trading volume on the CSE All-Share index fell to 126.8 million shares from 238.2 million in the previous session.

The equity market’s turnover fell to 2.95 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($9.87 million) from 4.31 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers, purchasing stocks worth 196 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 2.82 billion rupees, the data showed.