KARACHI: Bulls tossed the KSE-100 index up by 637 points (1.23 per cent) to close at 52,387.87 points, on Monday.

As the index continues to keep up its steep climb, the benchmark index has already gained 6.26pc in the first half of this month.

Witnessing the euphoria over the MSCI`s May 2017 semi-annual index review coming closer, many market participants believe that the index may be on its way to post its best monthly gain since December 2016 (an increase of 12.16pc).

While some nervous investors worry that the market may be witnessing something bordering on `irrational exuberance`, analysts at Intermarket Securities argued: `Whilethe market is re-rating itself for the upcoming upgrade, we believe that there is amethod to this madness.

The recent proposals for the upcoming budget, launch ofrefurbished margin financing product and the muchawaited upgrade from FMto EM can justify all exuberance expected this month.Three of the six potential MSCI constituents OGDC, MCB and Engro dominated the surge with cumulative contribution of 212 points.

`The MSCI was set to announce its May 2017 Semi-Annual Index review at PST 03:00am on Tuesday in which Pakistan will join MSCI EM,` traders at Topline Securities affirmed.

Trading volumes rose 1.8pc over last Friday to 353 million shares, which beat the 10-day moving average of 312m shares. Traded value rose 23pc over the previous session, to Rs23.1 billion.

Analysts at JS Global noted that the market witnessed an intraday gain of 848 points. Major gainers were OGDC, which rose 4.83pc, MCB 3.19pc, PPL 3.39pc, POL 5pc and ENGRO 2.08pc, as they cumulatively contributed 318 points.