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Sri Lankan shares closed higher on Friday, registering their best week in three-and-a-half months, lifted by gains in energy and financial stocks.
* The CSE All-Share index rose 7.63% through the week to 8,769.73, registering its best week since the second week of August.
* The index closed 0.76% higher on the day at an over five-week high. On Thursday, the index notched a 0.61% gain, recording its best day in nearly five weeks.
* Fitch late on Thursday downgraded Sri Lanka's Long-Term local-currency debt rating by two notches to "CC" from "CCC", citing a probable local-currency debt default in the face of high interest costs and tight domestic financing conditions.
* Petroleum products supplier Lanka IOC PLC and lender Sampath Bank PLC were the biggest boosts to the CSE All-Share index, rising 5.3% and 7.5%, respectively.
* Trading volume dropped to 126.1 million shares from 176.6 million in the previous session.
* The equity market's turnover rose to 4.01 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($11.05 million), compared with 3.11 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.
* Foreign investors were net buyers in the equity market, purchasing stocks worth 1.22 billion rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading 3.84 billion rupees of shares, data showed.
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($1 = 363.0000 Sri Lankan rupees) (Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)