The Pakistan Stock Exchange commenced its week on a strongly positive note, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index climbing 1,565 points, up 3.2 per cent, by the close of trading to reach 50,121.

The banking sector led activity, with more than 53.7 million shares traded.

Bulls dominated the market throughout the session, as the market's opening level at 48,555 remained the day's lowest and the benchmark touched a high of 50,163 before settling at the close.

"Stocks showed strong recovery on institutional buying in oversold stocks battered in the post budget sessions," said veteran analyst Ahsan Mehanti.

"Early session pressure remained in oil stocks on weak global crude prices and falling global equities. Subdued foreign selling and strong quarter-end corporate earnings played a catalyst role in record surge at PSX," he added.

KSE-100 Index volumes reached 289 million shares by the end of the session, with a total worth of nearly Rs17.2 billion.

Stocks of 389 companies were traded on the PSX, of which 317 gained in value, 53 declined and 19 remained unchanged.

Volumes were led by:

Bank of Punjab: 26m shares traded [+20.93pc];

Power Cement(R): 20m shares traded [+11.00pc];

K-Electric Ltd: 14m shares traded [+4.69pc];

B.O.Punjab 9m shares traded [+7.80pc];

Aisha Steel Mill 8m shares traded [+4.78pc].