Asking rents for class A office space rose significantly in downtown Boston during the second quarter despite a let up in leasing activity.

The city’s 74-million-square-foot central business district had 195,000 square feet of negative absorption, according to Transwestern’s officeSTATus report released this week. But asking rents rose from $55.79 per square foot in the previous quarter to $57.13, and the vacancy rate was unchanged at 9.4 percent.

The 185-million-square-foot Greater Boston office market had negative absorption of 102,000 square feet and a vacancy rate of 12.3 percent, down from 12.5 percent in the first quarter.

The 34.1-million-square-foot I-495 office market had nearly 400,000 square feet of positive absorption, in its strongest quarter since 2008. Major activity included Whole Foods Market’s regional headquarters relocation from Cambridge to Atlantic Management’s Marlborough Hills property and Kronos’ relocation from Chelmsford to Anchor Line Partners’ CrossPoint towers in Lowell.

The Route 128 market had 179,000 square feet of negative absorption, with vacancies rising 0.3 percent to 13 percent.