The benchmark index at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued its positive momentum from last week as two index heavyweights — Habib Bank Ltd and Lucky Cement — announced stock buybacks on Tuesday.

The KSE-100 index gained 346.79 points, or 0.83 per cent, to close at 41,927.64 points.

Salman Naqvi, head of research at Aba Ali Habib Securities, noted that the market had been performing well for some days due to the “earnings season” where different sectors, including banking and cement, had reported a rise in earnings and announced dividends, leading to increased buying interest.

“Many companies, including Habib Bank and Lucky Cement, are buying back their shares, generating public interest,” he told Dawn.com.

Naqvi said the market was currently being driven by fundamentals and it appeared that uncertainty on the political front was not dampening investor sentiment “as there is no solution in sight”.

He did, however, warn that the political situation could impact the market in the coming days.

Last week, the coalition government and the opposition initiated talks which gave rise to hopes that political parties were inching closer towards resolving a longstanding impasse over when to hold general elections in the country. Although these talks have so far not borne conclusive results, analysts believe their outcome, whether positive or negative, could sway the market in either direction.

Raza Jafri, head of research at Intermarket Securities, said the momentum from last week, which was driven by strong corporate results, continued today due to corporate actions.

He noted that Lucky Cement had announced a second share buyback of up to 23.8 million shares and Habib Bank’s parent company planned to invest around Rs3.5bn to buy shares of the bank.

“These two index heavyweight stocks have resultantly hit upper circuit today and have driven the overall market up.”