The Pakistan Stock Exchange continued positive momentum during trading on Thursday. The KSE100 index closed 654 points in the positive to settle at 41,031.

Trading remained in the positive during the session on Thursday with the index testing psychological barrier of 41,000 many times before midday. Positive sentiment prevailed as the index was able to breach 41,000 by closing time.

Gains at the exchange are in light of a healthy increase in traded volume. This type of rally can be considered to be indicator of a healthy improvement in prices at the exchange. Thursday’s trading saw a drastic 74% d/d increase in market participation for the KSE100 index.

The Oil & Gas exploration sector was seen supporting the index as a number of index heavy weights are in this sector. The entire sector was seen closing in the green after trading today. Cement was also seen as a sector of interest with the value traded in cements close behind the energy stocks.

Stock exchanges across the globe have been trading at record highs with the Dow Jones index on the NYSE breaching a milestone of 30,000 just the day before. Oil market has also been relatively stable as global oil prices had reached seven-month highs on Wednesday.

At the closing bell a total of 265 companies had advanced with 85 scrips in the red. 29 companies remained unchanged.

Market participation for the KSE100 Index increased to 249M from 143M in the previous session (74% on d/d basis). Major contribution to total market volume came from UNITY, TRG and MLCF accounting for a total of 113M shares out of the total market volume of 389M shares.