Ballots at a polling station in Tomelilla, Sweden September 9, 2018. TT News Agency/Johan Nilsson via REUTERS

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden’s opposition center-right Alliance held an extremely slim lead over the center-left parties in the Nordic country’s general elections, an exit poll by public service broadcaster SVT showed on Sunday.

The anti-immigration, nationalist Sweden Democrats, which are shunned by all other parties, recorded large gains, as expected leaving both the right- and left-wing blocs well short of a majority.

The Alliance got 39.6 percent while the ruling center-left Social Democrats and Greens and their Left Party allies in parliament 39.4 percent of the vote. The Sweden Democrats rose to 19.2 percent from 12.9 percent in the previous election, the poll showed.