KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday made remarkable progress and finally crossed the 42,000 threshold.
The relief rally, led by index-heavy oils and banks, propelled the index forward to make an increase of 1,030.82 points. At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a rise of or 2.50% to end at 42,310.12 level.
With investors remaining on the side-lines and volumes plummeting to as low as 71 million, the index had endured dull activity for the past few sessions.
The KSE-100 opened on a positive note with many investors believing that the index had founds its bottom at 41,000-point level, and would not fall further. In addition, attractive valuations of stocks, mostly in the banking sector, also helped bring investors in the limelight thus sending share prices soaring.
Among other factors that contributed to day’s increase were unconfirmed reports of massive buying by foreigners, which is said to have brought investors to the front. Mutual funds redemption that had been ongoing since the index’s decline also slowed which helped the market gain some momentum.
Despite Wednesday’s positive session, the index may continue to remain volatile due to a lack of positive triggers and uncertain political situation. Overall, trading volumes rose to 173 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 99 million.
Shares of 388 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 285 stocks closed higher, 82 declined while 21 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.6 billion.
Azgard Nine was the volume leader with 22 million shares, losing Rs0.22 to close at Rs13.39. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 11.1 million shares, gaining Rs1.27 to close at Rs38.78 and Bank of Punjab with 8.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.06 to close at Rs9.99.
