KARACHi: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 410 points.  

KSE-100 started with buying spree, hitting an intra-day high of 79,704.37, which was followed by some profit-taking in final hours. At close, index settled at 79,397.01, up by 409.92 points or 0.52 percent. Buying was majorly led by banking sector, alongside fertiliser, pharmaceutical, oil and gas exploration companies and OMCs. Index-heavy stocks including OGDC, PPL, PSO, SHEL, HBL, MCB and NBP traded in green. Volume on all-share index increased to 386.98 million from 316.24 million session ago. Value of shares declined to Rs 14.9 billion from Rs 17.07 billion in previous session. Silk Bank Ltd was volume leader with 36.87 million shares, followed by Hascol Petrol with 25.78 million shares and PIA Holding Company with 17.16 million shares. Shares of 430 companies were traded, of which 228 registered an increase, 155 recorded fall while 47 remained unchanged.

Experts attributed positivity to expectations of another cut in policy rate by State Bank of Pakistan in its upcoming Monetary Policy Committee meeting. Globally, Asian stocks were subdued after lacklustre earnings from US tech behemoths Tesla and Alphabet dented sentiment, while yen hit six-week high ahead of central bank meeting next week where rate hike remains on table. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.08 percent lower at 566.26, not far from one-month low of 562.43.Japan's Nikkei fell 0.23 percent while Taiwan financial markets are closed due to typhoon.