The Pakistan Stock Exchange recorded a positive session on Tuesday after taking a beating just a day before. The KSE100 index closed 231 points in the index to settle at 39,863.

The index remained positive throughout the day. It breached the technical barrier of 40,000 in the first half of trading. Selling pressure at those levels caused it to remain under the 40,000 mark for the second half of trading while still closing in the green at the end of trading.

The market posted gains on the back of positive vaccine news as Oxford also announced a successful Covid-19 vaccine. The oxford vaccine which has been produced in collaboration with Astrazeneca is said to be easier to store than the earlier two vaccines announced by American companies. The World Health Organization (WHO) also released a statement on Tuesday which said the positive news on the vaccine front could allow the world to return to normal operation by 2021.

Globally, political stability ensued from the announcement of transfer of power from the Trump administration to the Biden administration. This was the first formal announcement by the Trump administration which clearly stated that they will begin handing over powers to the winner of the recent elections.

At closing 189 companies had advanced with 131 scrips closing in the red. 29 symbols remained unchanged.

Market participation for the KSE100 Index decreased to 106M from 118M in the previous session (-10% on d/d basis). Major contribution to total market volume came from UNITY, MLCF and TRG accounting for a total of 46M shares out of the total market volume of 175M shares.