Investing.com – Sri Lanka equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Beverages & Tobacco, Banking, Financials & Insurance and Palm Oil sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share gained 0.04%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CSE All-Share were Mercantile Shipping Company PLC (CM:MSL), which rose 17.65% or 15.00 points to trade at 100.00 at the close. SMB Leasing PLC (CM:SEMB) added 14.29% or 0.1000 points to end at 0.8000 and Lanka Ceramic PLC (CM:CERA) was up 14.10% or 17.80 points to 144.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Central Investments and Finance PLC (CM:CIFL), which lost 14.29% or 0.100 points to trade at 0.600 in late trade. F L C Holdings PLC (CM:FREE) declined 7.69% or 0.10 points to end at 1.20 and Browns Investments PLC (CM:BROW) shed 7.14% or 0.10 points to 1.30.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 90 to 84 and 46 ended unchanged on the Colombo Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for July delivery was down 1.05% or 0.52 to $48.96 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in July fell 1.45% or 0.72 to hit $48.87 a barrel, while the June Gold contract fell 0.15% or 1.80 to trade at $1218.60 a troy ounce.
GBP/LKR was down 0.31% to 215.235, while USD/LKR fell 0.14% to 146.750.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.16% at 95.29.