KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange rallied by 505 points on Tuesday helping benchmark KSE 100-index closed at 45,877 points.
Market kicked off on a positive note and made an intra-day high of +540 points as active participation was seen in energy, cements and financials. Yesterday’s major heavyweights namely HBL (+1.21 percent), OGDC (+1.76 percent), PPL (+0.88 percent), UBL (+1.90 percent), ENGRO (+0.79 percent), MCB (+0.70 percent), LUCK (+2.29 percent), POL (+1.81 percent) and HUBC (+1.35 percent) cumulatively contributed +242 points to the index. Traded volumes rose by 37 percent DoD to 154m shares while value traded increased to $80m.
Top volume stocks were PAEL (-4.15 percent), EPCL (-0.21 percent), FFL (+5 percent), LOTCHEM (+2.23 percent) and FCCL (+2.03 percent). FFBL (+5 percent), in the fertilizer sector, closed on its upper circuit despite posting 1Q2018 loss of Re0.26/share. The company also disclosed that the Board of Directors has approved further investment of up to Rs1.5b in Fauji Meat Limited (FML) and a subordinate loan of Rs3.5b subject to shareholders’ approval. Moreover, NPL (+0.91 percent) posted its 9MFY18 EPS of 6.824 with no cash payout.
The stocks started day on positive note and added 181 points to reach 45553 level in early trading. The upward rally continued at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) till midday as the benchmark 100-index gained 220 points to take the tally to 45592 level.
Yesterday, the stocks opened the week on a positive note as the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 113 points to close at 45,372 points.
The index lost a few points in the opening hour to touch the day’s low of 45,192 points, but traded in the positive zone for most part of the day, hitting a day’s high of 45,453 points shortly before close.
Trading in the day remained dull as only 112.6 million shares worth Rs5.4 billion were traded at the exchange.
Of the 349 scrips traded in the day, 174 advanced, 158 declined and 17 remained unchanged. The chemical sector dominated trading with 15.3m shares traded while oil and gas marketing companies followed with 13.4m shares traded.
