The Pakistan Stock Exchange continued its rally on Wednesday with the KSE-100 index gaining 593.25 points as the postponement of the Pakistan Democratic Movement's (PDM) long march helped drive investors' sentiments.

At the end of the day, the market settled in the green at 45,450.31 points (up 1.32 per cent).

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said the stocks had closed on a bullish note led by scrips across the board as investors weighed "easing political noise" and upbeat data on 9.1pc large-scale manufacturing (LSM) growth in January.

The suspension of protests by the opposition, rupee recovery and "likely status quo in key policy rate announcement this week played a catalyst role in bullish close at PSX", Mehanti added.

Arif Habib Limited noted that the index had increased by 2,671 points (6.24pc) during the last four days, which was the highest increase in a four-day period since April 3, 2020, when the market had gained 3,598 points.

Stocks started the day at 44,857.06 points, which was also the lowest level seen during intra-day trading.

By 2pm, the benchmark index had added 603 points and was trading at 45,460.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is scheduled to announce the monetary policy for the next two months on March 19 (Friday). At its meeting on June 25, 2020, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had decided to reduce the policy rate by 100 basis points to 7pc and it is still unchanged.

Experts believe the central bank may not increase rates as the previous monetary policy statement indicated that the monetary policy settings in the near term will remain unchanged.

A survey conducted by a brokerage house said on Tuesday that 82pc of the financial sector believes that the policy rate would remain unchanged, while the rest see a slight upward change between 25 to 50 basis points.