The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) experienced a strong upswing on Wednesday, with the KSE-100 Index surging 928 points, or 2.21 per cent, to close at 42,911 points, breaking a four-day bearish streak.

The index had gained over 550 points in just the first half hour of trading as investors jumped at the opportunity to take positions at lower prices. The buying trend continued over the day, with the index touching a high of 42,950 points towards day's close. The day's low of 41,927 points was left in the dust very early in the session.

KSE-100 volumes touched 82 million shares, worth Rs7.5 billion.

The cement sector dominated the session with 21.6m shares traded. Engineering and technology scrips followed with 19.1m and 18.2m shares traded respectively.

"Market opened positive and quickly edged up in early trade as index names fetched interest from local institutions on attractive valuations and relative calm on political front. All major sectors, including the lagging cements, bounced back, while mid- and small-cap plays also closed higher, albeit on relatively less volumes, on retail buying," an analysis report from Elixir Securities said.

Stocks of 387 companies were traded in total, with 200 advancing, 74 declining and 13 remained unchanged.

"We expect further recovery in the following sessions and recommend investors to book profits on any possible selling opportunity," a JS Research note read.

Volumes were led by:

TRG Pak Ltd: 14.3m shares traded [+3.83pc]

Azgard Nine: 12.7m shares traded [+6.52pc]

Aisha Steel Mill: 8.8m shares traded [+5.17pc]

Pak Elektron: 7.2m shares traded [+4.75pc]

Power Cement: 5.8m shares traded {+8.95pc]