KARACHI: The stock market ended with gain of 123 points on Friday despite selling activity observed at the end of the trading.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 35,704 points as against 35,581 points showing an increase of 123 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note today with +54 points and 3.4 million shares traded at opening bell.
However, profit booking started soon that took the index in negative territory. Although buying activity was not observed across the board, bulls were still found to be in control, which took the index up by 185 points. Cement Sector led the volumes today with 26.9 million shares followed by Banks (18 million).
Among scrips, UNITY led the table with 12.2 million shares, followed by MLCF (8.7 million) traded at upper circuit.
Although total market volume declined, the market seems to have taken positive view on impending State Enterprise Fund that is likely to get a go-ahead in the coming week.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (+82 points), Cement (+64 points), O&GMCs (+31 points), Food (+29 points), Banks (+28 points) and E&P (-139 points).
Volumes dropped from 227.7 million shares to 142 million shares (-38 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 15 percent to reach $40.2 million as against $47.4 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, MLCF, TRG, PAEL and KEL, which formed 27 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include FFC (+61 points), LUCK (+32 points), NESTLE (+24 points), UBL (+22 points) and DAWH (+21 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include OGDC (-57 points), PPL (-47 points), POL (-36 points), HBL (-13 points) and HMB (-11 points).
