A host of positive factors including SBP's surprise rate cut, deferment of G20 debt and provision of COVID-19 relief fund from the IMF invited aggressive buying and Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a bullish trend to close on strong positive note with healthy gains on Friday.

Due to sudden surge in KSE-30 Index that increased by 5.0 percent, the PSX triggered the market halt at 10:52a.m to suspend trading for 60 minutes. It was the first-ever market halt that was triggered to suspend trading when the stock market was witnessing bullish trend.

BRIndex100 gained 172.3 points or 5.38 points to close at 3,376.06 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,424.65 and intraday low of 3,203.76 points. Volumes stood at 266.744 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 1,102.53 points or 6.85 percent to close at 17,190.16 points with daily turnover of 190.258 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index surged by 1,502.37 points or 4.80 percent to close at 32,831.83 points. Trading activity also improved significantly as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 302.398 million shares as compared to 119.102 million shares traded Thursday.

The market capitalization increased by Rs 230 billion to Rs 6.205 trillion. Out of total 362 active scrips, 319 closed in positive, only 31 in negative while the value of 12 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 23.239 million shares. It gained Re 0.20 to close at Rs 3.09 followed by Hascol Petroleum that increased by Rs 1.06 to close at Rs 15.30 with 21.340 million shares.

Indus Motor Co and Service Ind. Limited were the top gainers with Rs 55.12 and Rs 50.00, respectively to close at Rs 790.12 and Rs 770.00. Indus Dyeing and Pak Tobacco were the top losers with Rs 17.47 and Rs 10.99, respectively to close at Rs 531.00 and Rs 1,669.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index surged by 334.26 points or 7.24 percent to close at 4,953.50 points with total turnover of 1.631 million shares.

BR Cement Index increased by 279.16 points or 7.54 percent to close at 3,980.20 points with 41.948 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index gained 63.11 points or 0.92 percent to close at 6,930.09 points with 53.236 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 293.79 points or 7.06 percent to close at 4,453.87 points with 29.257 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,259.98 points, up 157.8 points or 5.09 percent with 42.851 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 66.69 points or 8.44 percent to close at 856.57 points with 22.628 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market saw an unprecedented surge that led to market halt at 10:52am for 60 minutes. A host of factors, all positive, from SBP's surprise rate cut to deferment of G20 debt and IMF provided COVID-19 relief fund contributed to the ascend in index. The KSE-100 Index realized an increase of 1,927 points during the session. The market also realized 300 million mark for shares traded.

Banking sector stocks that were not supposed to perform due to NIM suppression also saw increase in rates touching recent highs, but subsided by the end of session. Throughout the session, Cement, Fertilizer, Steel, Pharma sectors traded at upper circuit, primarily for the reason that these sectors were largely leveraged and the rate cut helped reduce the incidence of financial charges.

On the other hand, WTI price dropped during the session to $18.05 during the session without denting the sentiment for local oil and gas scrips. Banking sector contributed the most to the volumes with 53.2 million shares, followed by Cement (41.4 million shares) and Power (29 million shares).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (up 323 points), Cement (up 187 points), E&P (up 171 points), Power (up 149 points) and O&GMCs (up 98 points). Stocks that contributed positively to the index include ENGRO (up 144 points), HUBC (up 116 points), FFC (up 112 points), LUCK (up 88 points) and DAWH (up 66 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include BAHL (down 24 points), ABL (down 18 points), BAFL (down 6 points), MEBL (down 5 points) and SHFA (down 5 points).