KARACHI: The Pakistan Stocks closed higher as investors’ confidence was boosted due to rupee depreciation against the dollar, easing domestic political uncertainty and robust data for car sales in March 2022.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the higher global crude oil prices and speculations over the likely release of next International Monetary Fund (IMF) tranche played a catalyst role in the bullish close.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 0.69 per cent, or 318.93 points, to close at 46,484.43 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 0.76 per cent, or 135.44 points, to close at 17,899.59 points.

The ready market volumes stood at 494.94 million shares compared with the turnover of 474.58 million shares in the last trading session.

“A positive session was observed at the PSX due to the stability in the value of rupee against the dollar. Rally was witnessed in the refinery sector due to the expectation of tremendous earnings in the upcoming financial result,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said.

“The main board activity remained dull whereas hefty buying was witnessed in the 3rd tier stocks. Across the board buying was observed in the last trading hour which led the market to close in the green zone,” he added.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Nestle Pakistan up Rs104.99 to close at Rs5,549.99/share, and AL-Ghazi Tractors up Rs31.63 to close at Rs453.38/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Colgate Palm down Rs97.77 to close at Rs2,222.23/share, and Bata (Pak) down Rs179.99 to close at Rs2,220.01/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Cnergyico PK with a turnover of 99.12 million shares. The scrip gained 94 paisas to close at Rs6.75/share, followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 36.94 million shares. It shed 5 paisas to close at Rs1.93/share. Flying Cement remained the third with a turnover of 33.86 million shares. It gained 23 paisas to finish at Rs9.90/share.