KARACHI: Shares rose on the stock exchange with the KSE-100 index adding another 102.37 points to close at 26,590.69 on Monday.

Trading remained thin as investors generally avoided taking fresh positions ahead of a holiday on Tuesday. Sector-wise mixed trend was witnessed with eight out of 10 top traded scrips belonging to the second and third-tier scrips.

Nishat Mills and Nishat (Chunian) were among the volume leaders as textile shares saw some interest following the Masood Textile deal.

KESC was the volume leader accounting for 23 million shares or 12 per cent of the aggregate volume with its stock price up by nearly 4pc to a four month high, as small investors and punters put money into the power scrip on approval by SECP of listing Rs6bn KESC Islamic Bond through the stock exchange.

The other major stock that was conspicuous by its leadership was PSO. The oil marketing giant rallied by 2.8pc on expectations that dealer margins for OMCs would be increased in the upcoming Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting on Wednesday. Foreign investors bought $0.96 million worth shares, while local participants also traded on a smaller scale.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that improved automobile annual sales data, speculation in selected listed SOEs mainly in oil and banking sector ahead of IPO announcements for privatisation and consolidation ahead of major corporate earnings announcements, were factors that lifted investor sentiments.

Analyst Ovais Ahsan at JS Global stated that the market continued to rally into unchartered territory driven by PSO up 2.8pc, Nestle 3.9pc and KESC 3.9pc. Consumer companies continued to buzz with foreign interest as Nestle Pakistan led the sector while National Foods 4.9pc and Murree Brewery 5.0pc continued to spiral upwards.

The fertiliser sector saw a sell off emanating from news that the ECC instructed urea producers to revert the recent price hike. Major losers in the fertiliser sector were FFC 0.4pc, ENGRO 0.3pc and Fauji Fert Bin Qasim 0.9pc.