KARACHI: The KSE-100 rose by 145 points in mid-day trade, with a volume of over 129.5 million shares and a value of Rs3.52 billion. The All-Shares, KSE-30, and KMI-30 indices rose by 108.82, 116.23 and 222.12 points respectively.

All of today’s volume leaders had been in the green zone. KESC reached the price of Rs4.30, higher by 60 paisa or 16 per cent, on traded volume of 13.5 million shares. Other top 5 volume leaders for today were Fatima Fertilizer, Jahangir Siddiqui, PTCL, and Bank of Punjab.

The fertilizer sector had largely been in the green, following a government announcement that purchase of fertilizers will be done through local producer rather than importing, which was the previous practice.

Today’s notable gainers had been Engro Corp and Engro Foods, gaining Rs4.47 and Rs2.61 on traded volumes of 5.5 million and 3.76 million shares respectively. Unilever also gained Rs73.71, giving major support to the KSE-100 index

Overall, 227 shares advances, 81 declined and 15 remained unchanged.

The market is also awaiting news on the NRO verdict, to be announced tomorrow, which is expected to be a key market trigger.