Karachi: Buying spree at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) raised benchmark KSE-100 index that crossed 77,000 level for first time in history during trading session.KSE-100 hit an intra-day high of 77,310.45, but some profit-taking in second half of session erased gains.

Both trading volume and value also saw day-on-day decline.At close, KSE-100 index settled higher by 498.61 points or 0.65 percent at 76,706.77.  Buying was witnessed in key sectors including commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies and OMCs. Index-heavy stocks including, SNGPL, OGDC, HBL, MCB and MEBL traded in green. Volume on all-share index decreased to 395.89 million from 635.53 million session ago. Value of shares declined to Rs 21.37 billion from Rs 30.75 billion in previous session. K-Electric Ltd was volume leader with 23.04 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 22.4 million shares and Air Link Communication with 17.99 million shares.Shares of 439 companies were traded, of which 160 registered an increase, 205 recorded fall, while 74 remained unchanged.Globally, Mainland China and Hong Kong stocks fell on Friday, dragged lower by shares of liquor makers and other consumption-related shares and as sentiment was dented by a weaker yuan and fears of more Western trading restrictions on Chinese firms.Around region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.20 percent while Japan’s Nikkei index was up 0.44 percent.