The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index gained nearly 600 points on Tuesday, as investor enthusiasm remained high amid ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Islamabad.

The index saw range-bound trading in the first hours, followed by some selling that pushed the index to an intra-day low of 84,856.21.

However, the latter hours witnessed a strong buying spree that took the index to an intra-day high of 85,893.99.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 85,840.34, up by 578.96 points or 0.68%.

“The session witnessed a pullback in the fertiliser and exploration and production (E&P) sectors; however, investor enthusiasm remained high due to the ongoing SCO summit, with many anticipating new investment opportunities,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.

Key contributors to the index included MARI, EFERT, OGDC, ATRL, and FFC, which together added 425 points, it added.

On Monday, the KSE-100 had closed lower by 222.02 points on late-session selling.

The two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) kicked off, with delegations of members states reaching Islamabad on Tuesday. India’s Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also arrived in Pakistan to attend the summit, making first such visit in nearly a decade of any Indian official in Pakistan.

This is the first such visit in nearly a decade of any Indian official in Pakistan.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) sustained massive losses to the tune of Rs6.3 billion during the three-month period that ended September 30, 2024.

As per the latest consolidated financial results made available to the PSX on Tuesday, the company registered a loss of Rs2.8 billion in the same period of the previous year.

Secure Logistics Group Limited (SLGL) entered into an arrangement to provide transport services to Maersk West and Central Asia Limited (Maersk), a global shipping, transport and logistics services company.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee recorded a marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Tuesday. At close, the currency settled at 277.74, a loss of Re0.08 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 422.11 million from 477.64 million on Friday.

The value of shares declined to Rs24.47 billion from Rs23.47 billion in the previous session.

PTCL was the volume leader with 37.87 million shares, followed by Hub Power Co. with 33.28 million shares, and Kohinoor Spinning with 22.46 million shares.

Shares of 443 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 202 registered an increase, 174 recorded a fall, while 67 remained unchanged.