Sri Lanka stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Information Technology, Investment Trust and Construction & Engineering sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share added 1.09% according to Investing.com.

The best performers of the session on the CSE All-Share were Serendib Engineering Group PLC (CM:IDL), which rose 20.97% or 1.30 points to trade at 7.50 at the close. Meanwhile, SMB Leasing PLC (CM:SEMB) added 16.67% or 0.1000 points to end at 0.7000 and Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC (CM:SWAR) was up 14.29% or 0.200 points to 1.600 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Trans Asia Hotels PLC (CM:TRAN), which fell 5.26% or 5.00 points to trade at 90.00 at the close. Commercial Development Company PLC (CM:COMD) declined 3.72% or 2.90 points to end at 75.00 and Kalamazoo Systems PLC (CM:KZOO) was down 3.54% or 30.60 points to 835.00.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Colombo Stock Exchange by 151 to 13 and 37 ended unchanged.

Shares in Commercial Development Company PLC (CM:COMD) fell to 52-week lows; down 3.72% or 2.90 to 75.00.

Crude oil for January delivery was up 0.71% or 0.35 to $49.79 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.95% or 0.49 to hit $52.33 a barrel, while the February Gold contract fell 0.37% or 4.35 to trade at $1169.55 a troy ounce.

GBP/LKR was up 1.09% to 187.200, while USD/LKR rose 0.48% to 149.430.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.31% at 101.31.