The Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday witnessed a bullish trend, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 337 points to close above the 40,000 level at 40,010.

The market showed a steep surge within the first 30 minutes of trading, with the benchmark climbing 307 points in that period. A period of selling was reversed by renewed buying around the halfway mark, and the index's open at 39,673 points remained the day's low.

The benchmark posted a day's high of 40,091 points near the end of the session.

The market witnessed a recovery in today's trading session as the government made its fifth foray into the international bonds market during its current term, said a JS Global release.

The government successfully raised another $2.5bn, with $1.5bn through 10-year Eurobonds and $1bn through 5-year Sukuks, it reported.

The brokerage said that local institutions took the opportunity to buy stocks at attractive prices.

According to the report, the biggest rally was witnessed in the banking sector, where big banks boosted the index to close in the green. Mainly selling pressure was witnessed in gas utilities, where SNGP (-4.83pc) and SSGC (-2.28pc) closed in the red zone.

Volumes were significantly higher, as an overall 180.8 million shares worth Rs16 billion changed hands during the session.

A total of 342 companies' shares were traded, out of which 171 gained, 150 declined whereas 21 remained unchanged.

Volumes were led by:

• TRG Pak Ltd: 23.3m shares traded [+2.54pc]

• Engro CorpXD: 22.7m shares traded [+0.31pc]

• Sui North GasXD: 16.0m shares traded [-4.83pc]

• K-Electric Ltd. 11.7m shares traded [-0.64pc]

• Azgard Nine: 7.0m shares traded [+1.85pc]