Financials and IT drive Sri Lankan shares to end higher after Trump's tariff pause

April 10 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares closed higher on Thursday, mirroring gains in the broader Asia market after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on the hefty tariffs imposed on most nations.

The CSE All Share index .CSE settled 4.7% higher at 15,580.83, led by financial and information technology stocks.

Shares rose as much as 6.2% during the session.

The Trump administration had imposed a 44% tariff on the island nation that has been steadily recovering from its worst financial crisis in decades, easing concerns for the country, which had estimated that the tariffs would affect some $3 billion of exports.

SMB Finance SEMB.CM and Agstar AGST.CM were the top percentage gainers on the CSE All Share, rising 50% and 24.7%, respectively.

The equity market's turnover more than doubled to 6.98 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($23.5 million) from 3.08 billion rupees in the previous session, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors were net buyers, purchasing stocks worth 444.7 million rupees, while domestic investors were net sellers, offloading shares worth 6.56 billion rupees, the data showed.

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($1 = 297.0000 Sri Lankan rupees)