LAHORE - The Pakistan Stock Exchange continued its positive trajectory on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE 100-index gaining another 441.6 points to close above the level of 44,000 points, at 44,144 points.

The stock market kicked off sideways in the early hours but rallied later on, making an intra-day low and high of -23pts and +468pts, respectively. Yesterday's major heavyweights namely HBL (+4.84 percent), MCB (+0.95 percent), UBL (+4.90 percent), LUCK (+2.30 percent) and FFC (+0.12 percent) cumulatively contributed +269 points to the index. Traded volumes recovered by 34 percent to 223m shares while value traded remained restricted to $10m.

Top volume stocks were BOP (+6.35 percent), TRG (+4.97 percent), LOTCHEM (+4.06 percent), PAEL (-1.13 percent) and AICL (+2.31 percent). Financials once again were on the zeal where UBL (+4.90 percent) & BAHL (+5 percent) were amongst the higher gainers from the sector. Rally was seen in banking scrips as the caretaker Minister for Finance Dr Shamshad Akhtar gave her green signal for holding policy level dialogue with the IMF and the Fund mission was expected to visit Islamabad for gauging the economic health of the country by end of the ongoing month.

Other major banks such as HBL (+4.84 percent), MCB (+0.95 percent), BAFL (+2.31 percent) and NBP (+1.30 percent) all closed in the green. Mixed sentiment were witnessed in the cement sector where LUCK (+2.30 percent), KOHC (+0.96 percent) and MLCF (+0.25 percent) closed in the green; whereas DGKC (-1.56 percent) and FCCL (-0.96 percent) closed in the red. Moving forward, it is expected that market will remain positive with flows from local and foreign institutions directing the market.