The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened the week in the green, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 54 points to close at 42,841 on Monday.
Volatile trading amidst low volumes saw the index touch a day's low of 42,490 and a high of 42,925 points, with 115 million shares of indexed scrips worth Rs7.5 billion being traded.
Strong cement, oil and fertiliser sales for August and "reports for rising textile exports and surging remittances data played a catalyst role in the higher close," Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said. A note by Elixir Securities credited the gains to buying by foreign institutional investors.
Of the 343 stocks traded, 128 advanced and 197 declined as the engineering sector dominated trading with 17.3m shares traded, while technology and fertiliser closely followed.
Volumes were led by:
Dost Steels Ltd: 10.8m shares traded [+3.96pc]
TRG Pak Ltd: 8.5m shares traded [+2.69pc]
Engro Fertiliser: 6.5m shares traded [+4.65pc]
Attock Refinery: 4.3m shares traded [+4.81pc]
Aisha Steel Mill: 4.2m shares traded [-1.07pc]
