KARACHI  -Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) surged to all-time high on Wednesday, led by oil and banking scrips. The benchmark 100-share index touched 52,876.46 points level after gaining 729.49 points.

The index has rallied by around 2134 points in three consecutive sessions. Some of the top performers of the KSE-100 were MARI (up 1.83%), MTL (1.55%) and THALL (3.17%). Oil prices rose in the international market as confidence rose on OPEC and other big producers to agree to keep output restricted for the rest of 2017 and in the first quarter of next year as well. OGDC (up 3.56%) and PPL (4.57%) were the major contributors from the aforementioned sector, observed analyst Arhum Ghous.

Index point leaders were DAWH (up 5%), BAHL (5%), PPL (4.6%), OGDC (3.6%) & MCB (2.1%), with positive contribution of 292 points, while PICT (down 6.7%), ACPL (4%), JDWS (2%), SEARL (0.6%) & HCAR (0.9%) eroded 25 points from the index. On the sector front, banks added 222 points, oil & gas exploration 156 points and fertilizer 87.5 points, said analyst at Topline brokerage.

Investor speculations ahead of federal budget 2017-8 due this week, MSCI EM upgrade announcements, and surging global equities on higher global crude prices played a catalyst role in record close, said analyst Ahsan Mehanti.

Session recorded the highest year-to-date trading volume of 607m shares (last high of 695m shares was on Nov 2, 2016), up 87% d/d. Traded value surged 21% to Rs23.6b/US$226m.

Volume leader for the day was POWERR with nearly 124m shares traded in total.

Bank of Punjab with 90m traded shares and Lotte with 36m traded shares stood second and third respectively.