KARACHI: Investors took fresh positions on Wednesday ahead of long Eid holidays starting from Friday in anticipation of healthy corporate results and payout for the quarter endedJune30,2015.

The KSE-100 Index added 252.86 points (0.71 per cent) to close at record high of 35,699.75 points.

Traded volume climbed to 551 million shares of Rs16.2 billion value, higher than the earlier day`s volume at 417m of Rs15bn value and surpassed the average volume and value of the last 21 sessions.

Foreign investors bought stocks worth $0.74m with fresh inflow in the textile sector.

The index heavyweight banking sector saw a coupleof bigbanksaddingvaluesHBL and MCB Bank were up by 2pc and 1pc, respectively.Despite concerns over oil glut in the international market which could resultin precipitous fall in prices, some oil sector stocks fared well on the local boursewith PPL and OGDCL up by 2pc and 1pc, respectively.

Sui Southern Gas and SuiNorthern Gas continued their positive momentum for the second consecutive day as both closed at their upper circuit.

Major activity was witnessed in Lotte Chemical, Dewan Salman Fibre and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal with traded volume of 61m, 31m and 31m shares, respectively.

Major news flow included Ghani Glass (GHGL) informing the KSE that its board had called an extraordinary general meeting on August 5, 2015 to approve its merger with Techno Glass Industries an associated company. Share swap ratio is 1 share of GHGL in exchange of 4.3475 per share of Techno.

Analyst Muhammad Mobeen said that on the cement sector LUCK was up 2.2pc, while DGKC and MLCF were down 0.7pc and 1.3pc.