Karachi: Pakistan Stock Exchange benchmark KSE-100 gained 626 points. At close, benchmark index settled at 65,951.72, an increase of 626.04 points or 0.96 percent. Buying was witnessed in index-heavy shares with Engro, OGDC, PPL and SNGP settling in green. Experts said buying comes as political volatility in country cooled off.

Following general elections last month, Shehbaz Sharif was elected as Prime Minister for second term by securing 201 votes.

Volume on all-share index increased to 472.86 million from 344.22 million a session ago. Value of shares improved to Rs 16.28 billion from Rs 13.38 billion in previous session. Kohinoor Spinning was volume leader with 67.4 million shares followed by WorldCall Telecom with 60.2 million shares and K-Electric Ltd with 36.8 million shares.

Shares of 358 companies were traded on Monday of which 184 registered an increase, 153 recorded fall while 21 remained unchanged.

Globally, Asian share markets firmed  as Nikkei reached another new high and investors braced for week packed with central bank events and major data that will refine market wagers for when interest rates will start falling.

All eyes will be on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell when he testifies before lawmakers on Wednesday and Thursday, though analysts assume he will stay in wait-and-see mode on policy given recent upside surprises on inflation.