KARACHI, : Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended previous day’s gains on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 701.08 points (+1.20 percent) to close at 58,899.84 points.
The market opened on a positive note and remained in the green territory throughout the session. Across-the-board buying was witnessed, with index-heavy sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and pharmaceuticals trading in the positive zone.
The ongoing bullish trend comes amid the country’s improved economic indicators and the interim government’s successful negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the first review, which will unlock $700 million in funding.
According to analysts, the market is expecting a decline in the interest rate in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which would shift liquidity from fixed income towards equities. They said that overall economic indicators are improving, the current account deficit has declined while the Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) Index has also shown meagre growth, and these factors are benefiting the equity market.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 674.21 points, showing an intraday high of 58,920.41 points and an intraday low of 58,246.20 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 398.45 points (+1.01 percent) to close at 39,473.92 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 234.64 points (+0.80 percent) to close at 29,203.44 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 50.17 million to 306.74 million shares against 256.57 million shares a session earlier. The overall market volumes increased by 73.03 million shares to 669.25 million shares against 596.22 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, WTL topped the volumes with 40.14 million shares, followed by TELE (32.42 million) and PRL (32.35 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included WTL, TELE, PRL, AIRLINK, and HUMNL, which formed over 22 percent of total volumes.
A total of 390 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 374 companies a session earlier, out of which shares of 225 closed up, shares of 139 companies closed down while shares of 26 companies remained unchanged. A total of 98 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 99 a session earlier, out of which share prices of 69 companies closed up, 28 closed down and one remained unchanged.
The number of total trades increased to 274,343 from 242,103 a session earlier, while the value traded increased by Rs3.18 billion to Rs25.23 billion against Rs22.05 billion in the previous session.
In terms of rupee, HPL remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs76.25 (+7.5 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,092.92. The runner-up remained ISIL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs65 (+7.5 percent) to Rs931.72. NESTLE remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs50 (-0.58 percent) per share, closing at Rs8,500, followed by PECO, the share price of which fell by Rs46.8 (-7.5 percent) to close at Rs577.2 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards north remained commercial banks (341 points), technology & communication (184 points), cement (51 points), miscellaneous (40 points), and fertilizer (30 points). The major companies adding points to the index remained MEBL (119 points), SYS (110 points), TRG (58 points), HMB (51 points), and MARI (39 points).
The sectors taking the index towards south were oil & gas exploration companies (50 points), power generation & distribution (33 points), oil & gas marketing companies (11 points), chemical (7 points), and paper & board (5 points). The major companies depriving the index of points remained OGDC (52 points), PPL (36 points), HUBC (32 points), COLG (17 points), and PSO (11 points).
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