KARACHI-Pakistan Stock Exchange crossed the psychological barrier of 39000 points for the first time on Tuesday.

The benchmark 100-share index, breaching previous record, gained 663.66 points (1.73%) to close at 39,031.62 points. Healthy activity was observed across the board, brokers said.

Volumes increased by 56% to 248 million shares as compared to 159 million shares of the previous day whereas value increased by 49% to Rs 18.5b/177$m. Shares value has increased by Rs 188 billion this week while from January 2016 till now, 100-index has posted an increase of approximately 20pc, dealers said.

Cement sector continued to garner investor interest on the back of strong growth in cement sales for the month of June 2016. Major gainers of the aforementioned sector were PIOC (up 4.8%) and FCCL (3.7%). Investor interest was also seen in automobile sector, as Yen continued to lose value in the currency market. Major gainers of the aforementioned sector were INDU that increased by 2.7% and HCAR, which rose 1.8%). KAPCO (up 1.2%) continued its upward trajectory on the back of news that board of Privatization Commission (PC) has approved to offload government’s remaining stake of 40.25% in KAPCO by March 2017. UBL (+2.0%) in the banking sector gained as JCR-VIS upgraded UBL ratings, stated analyst Arhum Ghous.

Analysts said that investors had adopted cautious behaviour in the month of Ramazan regarding investments. However, purchase of shares from shareholders increased to a whole new level in first two trading sessions after Eid holidays which helped index to gain more than 1000 points. KEL was the volume leader with 39m shares traded, followed by Sui North Gas with 16m shares.

Interest in cement stocks led FCCL, DGKC and LUCK to gain between 1.8% to 3.4%. Local oil stocks continue to rally as PPL closed at its upper limit while OGDC and POL gained by 2.6% and 4.9% respectively, said dealers at sales desk Topline Securities.