KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s five-day winning streak ended on Thursday as the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 196.09 points or 0.44% to settle at 43,948.11.
Trading began on a positive note with the KSE-100 index testing the 44,300 level. However, the index could not sustain the momentum and dipped 245 points as profit-taking was witnessed.
Moreover, on the economic front, World Bank expects Pakistan’s GDP to rise by 5.8% during fiscal year 2017-18, before moderating to 5% in fiscal year 2018-19, reflecting tighter policies to improve macroeconomic stability.
Major heavyweights namely, HBL (-2.42%), PPL (-0.51%), ENGRO (-2.06%), MCB (-0.71%), FFC (-0.69%) and HUBC (+0.27) cumulatively contributed -137 points to the index.
Overall, trading volumes increased to 227 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 223.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.9 billion.
Shares of 357 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 114 stocks closed higher, 215 declined while 28 remained unchanged.
The Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 63.3 million shares, losing Rs0.03 to close at Rs13.04. It was followed by Pak Elektron with 21.7 million shares, gaining Rs1.26 to close at Rs39.78 and Pak International Bulk with 19.1 million shares, losing Rs0.56 to close at Rs12.21.
The PSX started day on bullish note and added 78 points in early trading to reach 44222 level. The stocks remained bullish till midday as the benchmark 100-index gained 148 points to take the tally to 44292 level.
On Wednesday, the stocks continued its positive trajectory, with the benchmark KSE 100-index gaining another 441.6 points to close above the level of 44,000 points, at 44,144 points.
The stock market kicked off sideways in the early hours but rallied later on, making an intra-day low and high of -23pts and +468pts, respectively. Yesterday’s major heavyweights namely HBL (+4.84 percent), MCB (+0.95 percent), UBL (+4.90 percent), LUCK (+2.30 percent) and FFC (+0.12 percent) cumulatively contributed +269 points to the index. Traded volumes recovered by 34 percent to 223m shares while value traded remained restricted to $10m.
Top volume stocks were BOP (+6.35 percent), TRG (+4.97 percent), LOTCHEM (+4.06 percent), PAEL (-1.13 percent) and AICL (+2.31 percent). Financials once again were on the zeal where UBL (+4.90 percent) & BAHL (+5 percent) were amongst the higher gainers from the sector.
