The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) rallied for the third day in a row, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 444.65 points (+0.97 percent) to close at 46,119.15 points on Wednesday. The market opened on a positive note and maintained its positive trend throughout the session. The expectation of revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme for the $6 billion extended fund facility (EFF) kept the investors’ confidence high. The IMF discussed Pakistan’s case on Wednesday and the programme revival seems imminent, as the government has met all key conditions. Moreover, the government successfully raised $1 billion through the issuance of international sukuk. The order books were oversubscribed at $2.7 billion, showing international investors’ confidence in the country’s economic revival, long-term stability and growth. This also provided a trigger to the bourse. The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 465 points, showing an intraday high of 46,139.50 points and a low of 45,674.50 points, which was the last session’s closing point. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 251.01 points (+0.8 percent) to close at 31,472.64 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 214.37 points (+0.95 percent) to close at 22,733.73 points. A total of 415 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 292 closed up, shares of 101 closed down while shares of 22 companies remained unchanged. Out of 97 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 81 closed up, 13 closed down and three remained unchanged. The overall market volumes increased by 48.30 million to 360.80 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 8.08 million to 123.51 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 1,582 to 131,455, while the value traded increased by Rs1.45 billion to Rs10.94 billion. Overall, market capitalisation increased by Rs53.61 billion. Among scrips, HUMNL topped the volumes with 48.79 million shares, followed by TELE (28.28 million) and TREET (26.31 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included HUMNL, TELE, TREET, WTL and GGL, which formed around 40 percent of total volumes. In terms of rupee, ISIL remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs32.79 per share, closing at Rs470.07 whereas the runner-up was MARI, the share price of which climbed up by Rs31.89 to Rs1,699.9. SAPT remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs81.22 per share, closing at Rs1,001.78, followed by SFL, the share price of which declined by Rs67.42 to close at Rs831.58 per share. The sectors taking the index towards north were commercial banks with 106 points, oil & gas exploration companies (81 points), cement (63 points), textile composite (35 points) and oil & gas marketing companies (25 points). The most points added to the index were by HBL which contributed 54 points followed by PPL (28 points), LUCK (24 points), OGDC (23 points) and MARI (21 points).The sectors taking the index towards south were tobacco with 4 points and vanaspati & allied industries (one point). The most points taken off the index were by BAFL which stripped the index of 9 points followed by PAKT (4 points), KAPCO (3 points), INDU (2 points) and EFERT (one point).