Records tumble: KSE-100 crosses 178,000 level in early trade

There was no stopping the bulls at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index etching new records, hitting the 178,000 level for the first time during the opening hours of trading on Friday. At 11:05am, the benchmark index was hovering at 178,715.38, an increase of 2,359.89 points or 1.34%. Buying interest was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertilisers, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and refineries. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, ARL, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, PSO, HBL, NBP and UBL, traded in the green.