KARACHI -  Stocks continued upward trend on Tuesday despite thin trade as the index gained around 231 points to close at 46,920.47 points or (0.49pc).

HBL and HASCOL led the index by contributing 83 points to the gain, brokers said. OMC led the gains in the market as the sector gained to closed (1.9pc) higher than its previous day close. HASCOL (5pc) and PSO (1.31pc) were major index movers from the aforementioned sector.

Nominal increase was witnessed in the E&P sector as crude oil prices traded comfortably above $53 per barrel level on the back of anticipation that balance will come to an oversupplied oil market as OPEC and 11 nations including Russia will trim their production by 1.8 million barrels a day from January 2017 onwards. HCAR (3.07pc) in the automobile sector extended its gains to close in the green for the second consecutive session. DCL (4.58pc) was today’s volume leader with 15m shares traded, stated analyst at JS Global.

In expectation of better results, OMC’s led investor interest which resulted in HASCOL to close at its upper limit while PSO and SNGP gained 1.4pc and 4.9pc respectively.

 Renewed interest was also seen in cement sector as DGKC, LUCK and MLCF gained between 1%-1.7%, said dealers at Topline brokerage. Overall, volumes increased by 10.5 percent to 198.6 million shares, while value rose by 22.2 percent to Rs11 billion/$105 million.