The Pakistan Stock Exchange saw renewed interest from domestic buyers as investors looked to gain a foothold in the market amidst sustained foreign buying.

The KSE-100 Index closed the day at 42,940 points, up 592 points (1.40 per cent) from the day's open, but below the highest point of 43,143. The day's low (42,324) was recorded shortly after trading commenced and right before a sharp surge took the market into green territory.

Today's sharp move was likely driven by the ‘fear of missing out’ or FOMO in short, where domestic investors who have been in the foreigners' shadows when it comes to buying equities [sprang into action]," read a Topline Securities note.

"Excluding today, foreigners have bought nearly $58m of Pakistan stocks year‐to‐date, while funds have only purchased $1.2m and banks have sold $20.2m," it continued.

"Investors also took [Tahirul] Qadri’s announcement of a temporary protest against the Model Town incident rather than a sit‐in, positively," it added.

Overall volumes improved to 161m shares traded (worth Rs7.22bn) compared to 149m (Rs5.88bn) a day earlier.

Cements (22.7m shares traded) led market activity, followed by commercial banks (20.1m) and transport (16.8m) scrips.

The top symbols by volume were:

• PIA: 15.75m shares traded (+6.92pc)

• Faysal Bank: 11.66m shares traded (+1.98pc)

• Dewan Cement: 8.48m shares traded (+4.79pc)

• TRG Pak: 7.8m shares traded (+0.80pc)

• WorldCall Telecom: 7.01m shares traded (-0.36pc)