KARACHI: After a rocky start to the trading session, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) managed to land in the green zone on Wednesday. Foreign investors ended the first session of October (Tuesday) as net buyers with a net inflow of $0.482 million recorded.
Declining by 0.23pc, the KSE-100 Index marked its intraday low of 32,180.71. It then recovered its losses and reached an intraday high of 32,388.73 after gaining 134.41 points. The index finally closed higher by 109.03 points at 32,363.35. The KMI-30 Index lost 37.21 points to end at 51,508.54, while the KSE All Share Index gained 35.84 points, settling at 23,536.08.
The overall volumes remained decent and were recorded at 181.36 million. Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF +5.37pc), Unity Foods Limited (UNITY +3.49pc) and Worldcall Telecom (WTL -2.59pc) led the volume chart. The scripts had exchanged 16.30 million shares, 15.97 million shares and 13.54 million shares respectively.
The banking sector (+98.78 points), cement sector (+47.53 points) and oil and gas marketing sector (+17.87 points) saved the KSE-100 Index from landing in the red zone. Banking giants Habib Bank Limited (HBL +82.28 points), United Bank Limited (UBL +19.67 points) and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP +12.17 points) remained the top positive contributors to the index on Wednesday.
The cement sector managed to gain 2.11pc in its cumulative market capitalization following media reports that cement prices are expected to go up in the northern region. D G Khan Cement Company Limited (DGKC +4.99pc), Fauji Cement Company Limited (FCCL +4.66pc) and Kohat Cement Company Limited (KOHC +4.66pc) all closed with decent gains.
Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Limited (GATM +2.69pc) recorded earnings per share of Rs10.12 for FY19 (Rs5.82 in FY18) along with a final cash dividend of Rs2.50; Khyber Tobacco Company Limited (KHTC +0.15pc) posted an EPS of Rs-7.96 for FY19 as compared to Rs41.60 in FY18, while Kohinoor Mills Limited (KML -1.08pc) declared an EPS of Rs14.31 for FY19, up 204.47pc YoY (Rs4.70 in FY18).
