KARACHI -  Stocks surged to new highs led by oil and cement scrips, the Pakistan Stock Exchange PSX shares index on Friday gained 645.25 points or (1.44%) and to conclude at a highest level of 45,387.23 points.

The index has an aggregate gain of 2,767 points in the seven day bullish sessions. Reports on rising auto sales, record production in cement industry, upbeat data on cement sales and higher urea sales for November 2016 played a catalyst role in record close, brokers said.

Cement led the gains in the market as it gained to close up 2.4%. LUCK in the cement sector gained to close on its upper circuit for the second consecutive day as the company in its material information disseminated in the market yesterday informed that the board of directors of the company in their meeting have authorised an investment of up to Rs12 billion to set up an associated company to assemble and market KIA motor vehicles in the country.

OGDC (rose 2.18%), PPL (2.13%) and POL (3.57%) in the E&P sector gained to close in the green zone as crude oil prices have surged to trade above $51/bbl level. This surge in crude oil prices was on the back of production cut meeting between OPEC and 14 other major oil producing nations on Saturday in Vienna, stated analyst Nabeel Haroon.

Overall volume increased to 407 million shares as compared to 368 million shares changed hands yesterday, while traded volume also rose to Rs22 billion/$210 million. Market capitalisation of the PSX at weekend stood at Rs9.1 trillion. Of total 412 active scrips in the session, 225 closed in green, 165 in red, while 22 went unchanged.  Aisha Steel emerged as volume leader in the market with 41.7 million traded shares, while Bank of Punjab with 33 million traded shares was in spotlight in the market.