KARACHI Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index closed higher by 357 points. KSE-100 started session with buying spree that largely continued till end.

At close, benchmark index settled at 78,349.66, up by 356.88 points or 0.46 percent.Rally was fuelled by significant gains in heavyweights such as MTL, ENGRO, NBP, COLG and HUBC, contributing to substantial 427 points increase, it added. Volume on all-share index decreased to 599.82 million from 636.02 million. However, value of shares jumped to Rs 20.41 billion from Rs 16.27 billion in previous session. Symmetry Group Ltd was volume leader with 64.3 million shares, followed by National BankXD with 42.6 million shares and Kohinoor Spinning with 41.14 million shares. Shares of 449 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 227 registered an increase, 166 recorded fall while 56 remained unchanged.