The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index hit a fresh peak on Friday, as late-session buying helped the index close over 1% higher. The KSE-100 had a negative start on Friday as it hit an intra-day low of 71,764.18. However, a strong buying spree was witnessed in the final hours, which helped the index close at another record high. At close, the benchmark index settled at 72,742.75, up by 771.35 points or 1.07%. On Thursday, the KSE-100 retreated despite a positive start, as profit-taking pushed the index below 72,000. Earlier, the index had closed above 72,000 for the first time in history on Wednesday. On Friday, across-the-board buying was witnessed with sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies and refinery sector, while index-heavy stocks including DGKC, OGDC, PPL and MARI traded in the green. Experts attributed the buying spree to anticipation of a rate cut among investors in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) scheduled on Monday. Later on, SBP will issue the Monetary Policy Statement through a press release on the same day. Pakistan’s key rate was last raised in June to fight persistent inflationary pressures and to meet one of the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for securing the bailout. Monday’s policy decision will be followed by the IMF Executive Board meeting to discuss the approval of $1.1 billion in funding for Pakistan, which is the last tranche of a $3 billion Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF. Market expects that the Fund’s board will release the last tranche, which will boost the South Asian country’s foreign exchange reserves. Pakistan is seeking a new long-term, larger IMF loan, as Finance Minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, has said that Islamabad will begin talks with the Fund next month, and could secure a staff-level agreement on the new programme by early July. Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee recorded a marginal increase against the US dollar, appreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.39, a gain of Re0.09 against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan. However, volume on the all-share index decreased to 541.14 million from 798.52 million a session ago. The value of shares also declined to Rs27.54 billion from Rs22.59 billion in the previous session. Askari Bank was the volume leader with 39.17 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd with 31.23 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 30.15 million shares. Shares of 377 companies were traded on Friday, of which 177 registered an increase, 175 recorded a fall, while 25 remained unchanged.