The KSE-100 Index started off the week on a positive note, gaining 229 points although volumes remained dull during the session at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday.

At close, the KSE-100 ended with a gain of 229.17 points or 0.49% to settle at 47,365.7.

The refinery sector saw renewed investor interest owing to market rumours suggesting that the government of Pakistan has finalised the Pakistan Oil Refinery Policy 2021 after which NRL, ATRL, & PRL all closed at their respective upper circuits.

On the results front, Hubco posted FY21 EPS of Rs.25.97, and announced a dividend of Rs5 per share.

“KSE-100 index is treading on a narrow band lately citing concerns over Afghanistan issue and its spillovers on Pakistan, and uncertainty surrounding IMF review. We believe peaceful transition of power in Afghanistan and abidance with international agreements would address investors' fears on Afghanistan while revenue collection figures for August would further instill confidence on government’s macro policies and IMF review,” said AKD Securities on Monday.

Sectors dragging the benchmark KSE 100 index north included power generation and distribution (75.80 points), refinery (42.63 points), and oil and gas exploration (41.55 points).

KSE-100 suffers fourth successive decline, loses 227 points

Volume on the all-share index inched up from 382.37 million on Friday to 382.64 million on Monday. The value of shares traded during the session declined to Rs12.33 billion, from Rs13.29 billion on Friday.

Byco Petroleum remained the volume leader with 42.95 million shares, followed by Ghani Global Holdings with 29.88 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom at 26.78 million shares.

Shares of 605 companies were traded on Monday, of which 309 registered an increase, 200 recorded a fall, while 96 remained unchanged.