Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)witnessed another volatile trading session on Thursday,as International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) approval of third loan tranche under the $6 billion programme for Pakistan kept investor interest alive in the stock market and helped the KSE-100 index to touch 46,000 level during the intra-day trading before it settled at 45,726.16 level with 181 points gain. On Thursday,the market remained in the positive territory right from the opening bell as investors’ cheered long due approval of a $500 million loan tranche by the multilateral lender, which provided the much-needed positive trigger for investors, who made fresh investment. However, fears of stringent measures expected to be taken by the government to meet IMF’s conditions limited gains. However, more than half of the gains were erased as pessimism over the economic situation and looming lockdown restrictions triggered profit-booking at the bourse. Moreover, the sentiments were alsotested bypressure led by shorter roll-over week and an outstanding amount of over Rs35 billion. Although bank, exploration and production, oil and gas marketing and fertiliser stocks were in the red, technology, refinery and cement sectors were the mainboard sectors that contributed positively to the index. The telecom sector saw Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTC) as the leading stock, which had a bearing from the sale of Dhabi Group’s stake in Pakistan Mobile Communication Limited (an unlisted company). The benchmark KSE-100 Index recordedits intraday high at 46,000.11 after gaining 455.91 points. The volume at KSE-100 jumped from 272.53 million shares recorded in the previous session to nearly 292.49 million shares, while the all-share volume also increased from 409.68 million shares recorded in the previous session to 470.4 million shares. Market Capital increased by Rs.25.03 billion, while total value traded increased by 0.22 billion to Rs.25.82 billion The volume chart was ledby Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited followed by TRG Pakistan Limited and Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited. The scrips exchanged 61.35 million, 39.01 million and 38.40 million shares, respectively. According to the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) foreign investors were net sellers of worth $0.12 million worth of equities. Among local investors, Banks and Brokersled the selling chart, and offloaded $1.36 million and $0.4million worth of equities. However Insurance Companies and companies led the buying chart and mopped up $1.38 million and $0.95 million worth of equities. During the session, sectors which lifted the index wereTechnology & Communication with 118 points, Cement with 30 points, Automobile Assembler with 25 points, Textile Composite with 15 points and Tobacco with 14 points. Among the scrips, the most points added to the index was by TRG Pakistan which contributed 107 points followed by Azgard Nine Ltd with 21 points, Lucky Cement Limited with 17 points, Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited with 14 points and Kot Addu Power Company with 13 points. However, sectors which continued to dent the index were Fertilizer with 27 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 22 points, Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 17 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 5 points and Investment Banks with 3 points. Among the scrips, the most points taken off the index was by Mezan Bank Limited which stripped the index of 24 points followed by ENGRO with 20 points, Hub Power Company Limited with 16 points, Pakistan Petroleum Limited with 12 points and Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited with 9 points.