Bullish streak at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) entered its fifth day on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 442 points.

After trading sideways early on, the index took off on an upward trajectory, peaking at 44,171 before closing at 44,144 points.

"Rally was seen in banking scrips as the caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar gave her green signal for holding policy-level dialogue with the IMF," a note by JS Research said.

The volumes today soared to over 223 million shares worth Rs9.9 billion at the exchange with the banking sector dominating trading with over 84.7m shares traded.

Of the 343 traded scrips, 154 advanced, 163 declined and 26 remained unchanged.

Volumes were led by:

1. Bank Of Punjab: 58.6m shares traded [+6.35pc];

2. TRG Pakistan Ltd: 15.4m shares traded [+4.97pc];

3. Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd: 10.8m shares traded [+4.06pc];

4. Pakistan Elektron Ltd: 10.7m shares traded [-1.13pc];

5. Adamjee Insurance Co. Ltd: 7.6m shares traded [+2.31pc].