Bulls continued to dominate at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), as the benchmark KSE-100 registered an increase of 265 points on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the benchmark index carried forward gains and registered an increase of 363 points.

During the trading session on Wednesday, indices traded in green all day long while both the volumes and value of shares surged from the previous session.

At close, the KSE-100 settled at 46,682.53 after an increase of 265.19 points or 0.57%.

Buying was witnessed in chemical, pharmaceutical, refinery, and oil and gas exploration sectors, while automobile assemblers and OMCS traded in the red.

Since the staff-level agreement (SLA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on June 30, the KSE-100 has surged 12.61%.

Sectors adding gains to the benchmark index included banking (83.16 points), textile composite (34.68 points) and power generation and distribution (33.32 points).

On the economic front, the Pakistani rupee ended its eight-session losing streak against the US dollar, as it appreciated 0.52% to settle at 287.04.

On the corporate front, HBL declared a consolidated profit before tax (PBT) of Rs51.5 billion for the first half of 2023 (January-June), nearly 50% higher than the same period of the previous year.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 429.5 million from 319.9 million on Tuesday. The value of shares traded rose to Rs14.13 billion from Rs10.26 billion in the previous session.

K-Electric Limited was the volume leader with 58.9 million shares followed by WorldCall Telecom with 22.2 million shares and Pak Refinery Limited with 18.4 million shares.

Shares of 352 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 212 registered an increase, 121 recorded a fall and 19 remained unchanged.