The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed the week on a positive note as bulls continued to dominate trading on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 530 points to close at 42,088.

Though the index showed some mixed activity in the first half of the trading session, the benchmark gained some positive momentum in the second half.

The market touched a bottom of 41,471 points during intra-day trading, whereas it touched the day's high at 42,156 points near the close of the session.

Volumes edged up to 261 million shares valued at around Rs13 billion traded. Of the 364 traded symbols, 246 advanced, 101 declined and 17 remained unchanged.

"Stocks closed bullish led by scrips across the board as investors weigh strong financial results in the oil and the cement sectors in the quarter-end earning seasons rally at the PSX," Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said.

He was of the view that institutional interest in the late session, reports of rising local cement prices, strong quarter-end earnings announcements by APL and DGKC, and higher global crude prices buoyed the index.

"The government levy of higher import duties will supporte auto stocks and subdued political noise played a catalyst role in higher close at the PSX," he added.

The engineering sector dominated the market with around 39m shares traded. The chemical and the textile sectors followed with and 25m and 23.5m shares traded, respectively.

Volumes were led by: Engro Polymer: 20.7m shares traded [+2.81pc];

Azgard Nine: 17.6m shares traded [+7.79pc];

TRG Pak Ltd: 15.9m shares traded [+4.81pc];

Aisha Steel Mill: 2.93m shares traded [+14.6pc];

Dost Steels Ltd: 1.50m shares traded [+14.1pc].

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