Sri Lankan stocks gained on Friday, led by heavy foreign buying in market heavyweight John Keells Holdings, while local retailers bought speculative shares amid falling interest rates. The Colombo Stock Exchange's main index rose 0.65 percent, or 36.22 points, to close at 5,607.13, its highest since October 19. Foreign buying accounted for 68 percent of turnover and offshore investors bought a net 619.5 million rupees worth of shares, extending net foreign buying this year to 38.52 billion rupees.

Trading in John Keells Holdings, which gained 0.87 percent to 219.9 rupees. The day's turnover stood at 930.6 million rupees ($7.33 million), compared to this year's daily average of 886 million rupees. The rupee closed steady at 127.00/10.

Copyright Reuters, 2012