The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended gains for the third day in a row, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 156.09 points (+0.35 percent) to close at 44,416.20 points on Thursday. The market opened on a positive note and remained positive throughout the session. The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 330.09 points, showing an intraday high of 44,590.20 points and a low of 44,260.11 points, the last day closing point. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 116.99 points (+0.39 percent) to close at 30,475.11 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 19.53 points (+0.09 percent) to close at 21,901.29 points. A total of 377 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 200 closed up, shares of 153 closed down while shares of 24 companies remained unchanged. Out of 97 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 54 closed up, 40 closed down and three remained unchanged. The overall market volumes decreased by 28.03 million to 243.08 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 14.96 million to 121.31 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 1,406 to 107,059, while the value traded increased by Rs2.16 billion to Rs10.34 billion. Overall market capitalisation increased by Rs29.21 billion. Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 22.93 million shares, followed by TREET (19.09 million) and TRG (17.71 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, TREET, TRG, CNERGY, and PRL, which formed around 33 percent of total volumes. The major sectors taking the index toward north technology & communication with 79 points, commercial banks with 60 points, fertilizer with 44 points, cement with 32 points and food & personal care products with 16 points. The most points added to the index were by TRG which contributed 44 points followed by ENGRO with 41 points, SYS with 33 points, UBL with 22 points and PAKT with 16 points. The major sectors taking the index toward south were oil & gas exploration companies with 41 points, chemical with 31 points, oil & gas marketing companies with 17 points, refinery with 15 points and power generation & distribution with 9 points. The most points taken off the index were by COLG which stripped the index of 31 points followed by OGDC with 14 points, POL with 13 points, PSO with 11 points and PPL with 11 points. According to experts, the investors cheered the government’s determination to meet pre-conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for resumption of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) as the Finance (Supplementary) Bill was approved by the federal cabinet on Thursday. Moreover, appreciation of Pakistani rupee by 0.41 percent against the US dollar contributed towards investors’ positive sentiments. Meanwhile, the PSX has proposed amendments to the regulations pertaining to the definition of accredited individual investor and its eligibility to trade in Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) companies. According to a notice issued by the bourse, for the unversed, recently, stockbrokers had asked the regulator to revoke the investors’ eligibility criteria for trading on the newly launched GEM board in order to achieve hassle-free trading. The PSX, after considering the concerns raised by some of the security brokers and Pakistan Stock Brokers Association and subsequent deliberation held with them, has amended its regulations, it added.