KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued its upward trend on weekend.The benchmark KSE 100-share index gained 598 points to close at 44,179 points.
A rally was seen in the auto sector where heavyweights INDU (+4.55%), PSMC (4.93%), MTL (5%), HCAR (4.57%) closed higher than its previous day close. Moreover, DFML (+4.97%) closed close to its upper circuit on the back of material information released by the company stating that Engineering Development Board has approved the brownfield status for the company. The production is set to start by the end of Feb 2018. Crude oil prices declined in the international market after making the biggest rally since 2015. OGDC (-1.57%) and POL (-0.09%) were the major victims of the mentioned sector, stated analyst at JS Global.
Market rejected despondency created by a tweet of PTI’s chairman and maintained where it left Friday. First session showed an upside of 250 points, and continued rallying in second session. The index climbed back again above 44,000. Foreigners are likely to have contributed yesterday, who have so far injected $76m in January in banks, cement and E&P stocks. Compared with the activity of past few days, INDU, MTL, PSMC and ABOT contributed significantly to performance. Early next week is expected to continue positive momentum, market participants said.
On the news front, according to State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) weekly report, the country’s foreign exchange reserves maintained a declining trend, falling below $20 billion.
Scrips that contributed positively included HBL that added 38 points, UBL 35 points, ENGRO 35 points, LUCK 31 points and MTL that contributed 30 points to the index gain. Stocks that contributed negatively included OGDC that shed 38 points, NRL 10 points, MARI 5 points, PAKT 4 points and JGICL that took away 3 points from the index.
Volumes declined slightly from 268m shares to 209m shares (-22% DoD). Average traded value also declined by 22% DoD to reach $96.7mn as against $123.2m. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included WTL, SSGC, DCL, TRG and FCCL, reflecting 25% of total volumes.
