KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday opened adding huge 557 points to take the tally to 47117 level in early trading.
On Thursday, the stocks continued upward momentum, with the benchmark KSE 100-share index gaining 457 points to close at 46,561 points.
After initially trading sideways, the market got back on its feet to make an intraday high of +553 points. Major heavyweights namely HBL (+4.40 percent), OGDC (+0.11 percent), PPL (+0.83 percent), UBL (+2.47 percent), LUCK (+0.16 percent), ENGRO (+0.84 percent) and MCB (+1.51 percent) cumulatively contributed +260 points to the index. However, traded volumes decreased by 14 percent DoD to 233m shares while value traded was down to $110m.
Top volume stocks were BYCO (-1.44 percent), EPCL (+0.87 percent), LOTCHEM (-2.51 percent), ANL (+3.014 percent), PAEL (+4.52 percent). Investors’ confidence once again was seen in the financials and cement sector. From the banking sector, HBL (4.40 percent), UBL (+2.47 percent), MCB (+1.51 percent) and BAFL (+1.00 percent) closed in the green as a pre-budget rally was seen. On the flip side, MLCF (+1.97 percent), DGKC (+1.42 percent), LUCK (+0.16 percent) and FCCL (-0.03 percent) in the cement sector followed the rally as sales numbers for March-2018 recorded 17.3 percent YoY growth to clock in at 4.652m tons, with local sales up 13.5 percent YoY and exports up 85 percent YoY.
