KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday landed in the green, with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 224 points to close at 40,371.
The market showed mixed activity in the first half of the session, hitting a day’s low of 40,031 points before adopting an upward momentum for the rest of the day. It hit a day’s high of 40,463 near the close of the session.
Volumes soared further, with 239.6 million shares worth Rs9 billion changed hands during the session, compared to 199m shares traded on Wednesday.
A total of 349 companies’ shares were traded, out of which 198 advanced, 133 declined, and 18 remained unchanged.
The communication sector dominated trading with 69.5m shares traded, while the engineering and cement sectors followed with 29.8m and 21.6m shares traded respectively.
Earlier, the stocks started trading on positive note after gaining 69 points to reach 40215 points level in early trading. The PSX remained bullish with 38 points gain till midday and reached 40185 points level.
On Wednesday, the PSX rallied past 40,000-point level with good volumes and healthy upside to the index. E&P stocks were triggered by increase in international crude oil price, whereas cement sector played on low PE multiples.
The benchmark 100-share index closed at 40,147 points, showing an upside of 621 points. Major contribution came from cement sector that added 142 points and oil & gas E&Ps that added 132 points, brokers said.
Top 10 index point contributors were LUCK (up 5%), PPL (3%), OGDC (2.4%), UBL (1.7%), DGKC (5%), ENGRO (1.6%), MCB (1.2%), FFC (1.9%), SEARL (4.1%) & FCCL (5%), adding 342 points to the index.
Sector-wise, cements added 142 points, E&Ps added 132 points as int’l oil prices skirted sixty (US$/bbl), banks 81 points, fertilizers 72 points & engineering 42 points respectively to the index.
Total volumes also increased to 199m shares as compared to 178m shares of Tuesday (up 12% DoD). Average traded value also increased by 30% to reach $ 84m as compared to $ 64.7m Tuesday.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included TRG, WTL, KEL, BAFL and PAEL contributing a total of 63m shares, reflecting 32% share of total volumes.
