A range-bound session was witnessed on the opening day of the week with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing marginally positive as volumes declined at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday.

At close, the KSE-100 finished with a gain of 72.17 points or 0.15% to settle at 47,270.46.

KSE-100 powers past 47,000 with 573-point gain

“Expectations of a hike in interest rate in the upcoming monetary policy scheduled for September 20 (Monday), coupled with expectations of a higher CPI due to a 13.7% week on week increase in SPI kept the market gains in check," said Topline Securities in its post-market comment.

"The commercial banks sector saw renewed investor interest amid expectations of a hike in interest rate after which UBL & HBL added 65.9 points and 48.9 points to the benchmark index, respectively."

The refinery sector was in the limelight amid reports that the government was due to finalise the policy on Monday.

CCoE to take up refining policy on Monday

On Monday, sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 index north included banking (75.39 points), oil and gas marketing (17.45 points), and oil and gas exploration (15.59 points).

Volume on the all-share index decreased from 427.45 million on Friday to 395.84 million on Monday. The value of shares traded during the session also recorded a decline, amounting to Rs16.19 billion from Rs18.18 billion.

Byco Petroleum was the volume leader with 44.96 million shares, followed by Service Fabrics with 42.15 million shares, and TPL Properties at 41.07 million shares.

Shares of 519 companies were traded on Monday, of which 209 registered an increase, 290 recorded a fall, while 20 remained unchanged.