KARACHI: Stocks market continued to witness an upward trend Wednesday and the KSE-100 index crossed the 40,000 mark to end 396 points higher at 40,085 points.

The benchmark index started the day from Tuesday’s 39,689 and rallied to hit the session’s high of 40,112 points in the intraday trade.

Trading volumes surged to a record 498 million shares valuing up to Rs17.74 billion compared to Rs10 billion of last session. Of the 446 scrips traded, 306 rose, 118 declined and that of 23 ended unchanged.

The market capital moved northward accumulating to Rs8.05 trillion.

Foreign portfolio investment was positive and marked a net buying of $ 25,429.

Pace Pakistan led volumes with 55 million of its listed shares changing hands each appreciating to Rs8.28. Other best performing stocks were TRG Pakistan, Japan Power, Bank of Punjab, Byco Petroleum, SNGPL, Dewan Cement, WorldCall Telecom, Ghani Automobile and PTCL.

Trade in futures was robust and grew to 52.6 million contracts compared to 16.5 million of Tuesday.

“Stocks closed bullish amid record trades on strong earnings outlook,” said Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp.

The analyst cited upbeat cement dispatch data for Aug’16, rising urea and DAP offtake and speculations in second- and third-tier stocks as a catalyst for the bull-run.