KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bullish till midday and gained 207 points to reach 46740 points level on Wednesday.
Earlier, the PSX started day adding 305 points to reach 46839 points level in early trading.
On Tuesday, the stocks welcomed August with a 523 points (1.1%) gain and the 100-share index closed at 46, 533.43 points. Gains were lead by energy chain sector on the back of higher crude oil prices with US benchmark WTI trading near US$50/bbl after 2 months.
HBL continued to slide, briefly hitting its lower limit during intraday trade as the rumor mill is rife with speculation regarding an alleged penalty. Late interest was seen in the leading bank which stemmed the decline to 2.7%.
Investor sentiment was bullish on account of political certainty and improved inflation numbers which clocked in at 2.91% for the month of July-17. BYCO (up 4.6%) gained on the back of news of production resumed from its 120,000bpd refinery. ASL (up 5.0%) and ISL (rose 5.0%) closed at their respective upper circuits as customs increased import duty on steel giving advantage to local steel industry, stated analyst at JS Global.
Top 5 index point performers were ENGRO (up 4.5%), SNGP (5%), PSO (5%), POL (4%) & OGDC (2%), adding 258 points; while HBL (down 2.7%), ABOT (3.9%), LUCK (7%), KTML (3.1%) & DAWH (0.7%) held back 177 points (out of which HBL was 127 points). Participation thinned as volumes declined 20% to 256m shares while traded value shed 6% to Rs17.6b/$167m.
