The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended the week on a high, with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 442 points, or 1.08 per cent, to close at 41,401 on Friday.
The market remained bearish over the past two sessions but a reduction in the penalty imposed on Habib Bank Limited (HBL) by New York regulators appeared to have caused investor confidence to return.
"Bullish momentum returned as HBL (+5pc) opened at its upper circuit on the back of a huge decline in the final penalty imposed by the DFS [Department of Financial Services] on the ban, where the bank has agreed to pay US$225 million instead of a potential amount of up to US$630m considered earlier," a JS Research analyst's note read.
The index made an intra-day high of 677 points to touch 41,636 within the first half hour of trading.
140.78m stocks worth Rs8.45 billion were traded in the market.
The stocks of a total of 357 companies were traded in the market, of which 233 advanced, 103 declined and 21 remained unchanged.
Commercial banks dominated trading for the third session in a row with 24.1m shares traded, while the technology and textile sectors followed with 19.7m and 15.2m shares traded respectively.
Volumes were led by:
TRG Pak Ltd: 18.3m shares traded [+3.19pc]
B.O.Punjab: 14.0m shares traded [+7.61pc]
Azgard Nine:13.2m shares traded [+6.86pc]
Engro Polymer: 6.6m shares traded [+3.86]
Pak ElektronXD: 6.2m shares traded [+3.67pc]
