KARACHI: The stock market gained 131 points on Tuesday amid mixed trading activity during the day.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 32,716 points as against 32,585 points showing an increase of 131 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note with +17 points but faced selling pressure that took the index down by 129 points.
Prime Minister’s ongoing visit to USA was well received by the media and political analysts, but failed to garner the support as anticipated by stock traders.
By the end of session, cement and steel sector scrips saw better price performance and stocks like DGKC, MLCF, ISL were seen traded at upper circuits.
Much of this activity is attributed to short covering by investors, which have been selling bearish on these sectors due to anticipation of poor results. Overall volumes reached close to 100 million today, mainly led by Cement Sector with ~24 million shares (contributed by MLCF (13 million)) and followed by Technology (13 million) contributed by WTL’s 8 million.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (+43 points), Fertilizer (+27 points), Banks (+18 points), E&P (+17 points) and Pharma (+16 points).
Volumes more than doubled from 44.5mn shares to 96.9 million shares (+117 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 75 percent to reach US$ 21.7 million as against US$ 12.4 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include MLCF, UNITY, WTL, FFL and PAEL, which formed 44 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include FFC (+26 points), EFERT (+14 points), HBL (+13 points), UBL (+11 points) and FCCL (+10 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively include NESTLE (-16 points), ENGRO (-11 points), HUBC (-7 points), NATF (-6 points) and IGIHL (-6 points).
