The Pakistan Stock Exchange has ended Wednesday’s trading session on a positive note, with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 560.01 points, or 1.25 per cent, by the close of the trading session to reach 45,474.46.

Volumes were led by commercial banking stocks as the benchmark index made a recovery following days of bearish sentiment.

"Stocks showed recovery led by oversold banking, fertilisers and oil scrips on strong valuations amid late session institutional buying," said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp.

"Upbeat data on Oil production for Jul-May'17 played a catalyst role in major recovery at PSX," he added.

"Concerns over the $30bn record trade deficit for Jul-May 2017, the slump in global crude prices and report on US' tougher policy on Pakistan invited early session pressure. Selected steel and cement stocks outperformed on development commitments in federal and provincial budgets."

187.9 million shares changed hands by the end of the session, with a total worth of nearly Rs13.42 billion.

Stocks of 372 companies were traded, of which 190 gained in value, 168 declined and 14 remained unchanged.

Volumes were led by:

  1. TRG Pak Ltd: 23.27m shares traded [-3.68pc];

  2. Bank of Punjab: 20.20m shares traded [-0.46pc];

  3. K-Electric Ltd: 20.03m shares traded [(-1.44pc];

  4. Bank Of Punjab(R): 19.82m shares traded [+20.00pc]; and,

  5. Askari Bank: 16.69m shares traded [+5.23pc].

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