KARACHI: The equity market gained 274 points on Wednesday in range bound trading activities.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 29,506 points as against 29,232 points showing an increase of 274 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded range bound today, oscillating between -330 points and +460 points during the session and closed +274 points.
CPI based inflation release matched street consensus at 10.2 percent that gave confidence to the investors that the upcoming number would be even lower, raising the hopes that yield on fixed instruments, particularly T-Bills and PIB will dip further.
Secondary market 5-year PIB was seen trading 9.1 percent.
Today’s trading session saw profit booking as well that kept the overall market range bound, perhaps weakness in global equity and commodities market caused investors to rethink their decision.
Cement sector led the volumes with 51.1 million shares, followed by O&GMCs (24.6 million) and Banks (15.9 million). Among scrips, HASCOL topped the chart with 25.8 million, followed by MLCF (19 million) and KEL (16.8 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+46 points), Textile (+37 points), Auto (+33 points), Inv Banks (+33 points) and E&P (+32 points).
Volumes declined from 222 million shares to 193.7 million shares (-13 percent DoD). Average traded value also dipped by 9 percent to reach US$ 40.1 million as against US$ 44.1 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include MLCF, HASCOL, UNITY, OGDC and PIOC, which formed 37 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include MARI (+35 points), DAWH (+35 points), MCB (+24 points), ENGRO (+23 points) and UBL (+23 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include MEBL (-24 points), LUCK (-18 points), EFERT (-12 points), NESTLE (-10 points), and OGDC (-10 points).
