KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday started day, adding 78.65 points to reach 39884.53 points level in early trading.
On Wednesday, the stocks closed higher led by blue chip oil, cement and auto stocks, the PSX shares index gained 142.17 points (0.36 percent) to close at its highest-ever 39805.88 points. Cements led early market gains on the back of better than expected dispatches in July 2016, with LUCK (up 2.72 percent) leading sector charts. In the fertilizer space, EFERT (rose 0.75 percent) garnered investor’s interest on the back of its interim cash dividend announcement of Rs2/share. Volumes increased by 9.5 percent at 242 million shares while the value also increased by 7 percent to Rs12.3bn/$118 million). HBL and LUCK contributed 70 points to the gain. DSFL and EFERT led the volumes with 27mn and 18mn shares traded respectively. MCB announced EPS of 4.3/share with cash dividend of Rs4 which was in line with street consensus. Stock gained 0.1%.