The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) started the new month on a positive note in a low-volume session on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 296.76 points (+0.66 percent) to close at 45,369.14 points. The market opened on a positive note and remained positive throughout the session. The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 387.45 points, showing an intraday high of 45,459.83 points and a low of 45,072.38 points, the last day closing point. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 121.75 points (+0.39 percent) to close at 30,953.66 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 85.36 points (+0.39 percent) to close at 22,154.93 points. A total of 342 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 211 closed up, shares of 110 closed down while shares of 21 companies remained unchanged. Out of 95 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 61 closed up, 31 closed down and three remained unchanged. The overall market volumes decreased by 170.04 million to 241.07 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 181.84 million shares to 85.04 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 60,673 to 94,927, while the value traded decreased by Rs25.6 billion to Rs9.22 billion. Among scrips, FFL topped the volumes with 38.34 million shares, followed by FFLR1 (37.07 million) and TPLP (14.86 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include FFL, FFLR1, TPLP, MLCF, and TRG, which formed around 46 percent of total volumes. The major sectors taking the index toward north were cement, automobile assembler, automobile parts & accessories, engineering, commercial banks, chemical, and food & personal care products. The major sectors taking the index towards south were oil & gas marketing companies, textile composite and paper & board. According to experts, the market may attract investment as rebalancing the PSX to the status of frontier market has been completed. They were of the view that foreign buying will come into the market in the coming days, as foreign buying had been at standstill due to rebalancing of MSCI Emerging Markets to Frontier Markets. They said that falling oil prices may also support the country not only in terms of balance of payment but also in terms of reduced cost of production. They were of the view that Advisor to the PM on Finance Shaukat Tarin has sought a plan from the Petroleum Division to stabilise share prices of energy companies and this news may support the government-owned oil and gas exploration companies, including OGDC and PPL. They said that volumes remained very low during the session. They said that the benefit of reduction in oil prices internationally has not been passed on to the consumers by the government, which is due to the government’s talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as the global lender wants petroleum levy at higher level. They said that the rally in the cement sector is due to a drop in coal price internationally, which has come down from around $240 per tonne to $117 per tonne.