KARACHI – The benchmark KSE-100 index reversed the early trading loss and surged to 34688.78 points with positive gain of 31.84 points or 0.09 percent till 13:19pm on Monday. In early trading of the same day, the index had shed 15.31 points or 0.04pc to reach 34656.94.
The bullish trend was also caused by T-bills cut-off yields declining by 47-53bp and up-front tariff for LNG-fired power plants likely to be set at Rs8.55/kwh.
Meanwhile, The High and Low were 34789.35 and 34635.35 respectively while the total volume traded in the market was 131,249,880. On the last trading day, profit taking at these levels led to KSE-100 to close with average trading volumes increasing by 10pc WoW to 328m shares/day.
Various factors propped up the market optimism including soft Jan-2015 CPI inflation reading of 3.88pc YoY; successful completion of IMF’s sixth review for the release of $518m; and slash in National Savings rate by 150bp by the State Bank of Pakistan. Sharp pull-back in international crude oil prices helped Oil & Gas sector to gain 3.4pc WoW whereas Telecom and Pharmaceutical sectors underperformed the market.