KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) bounced back on Thursday with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 300 points to close at 42,847.
The index opened higher, then declined to the day’s low at 42,496 before rebounding to peak at 42,920 shortly before the day’s close.
In all, 142.6 million shares worth Rs7.9 billion were traded at the exchange. Of the 340 scrips traded, 176 advanced, 141 declined and 23 remained unchanged. Commercial banks dominated trading by a margin with 37.5m shares traded.
On Wednesday, the KSE 100-index of Pakistan Stock Exchange blew both hot and cold, making an intra-day high of +151 points and an intra-day low of -285 points and finally closing down 76 points at 42,546 points.
Despite dull activity, market appeared to consolidate as prices have fallen down to extremely attractive levels. Volumes improved by 11% DoD to 134 million shares, compared to 120 million shares in the previous trading session. BOP (+1.26%) was volume leader as more than 11 million shares of the company exchanged hands. Major laggards were HBL (-2.67%), MCB (-1.87%), and LUCK (-1.69%) as they cumulatively wiped away 126 points from the index. On the flipside, POL (+2.62%), ISL (+3.20%) and TRG (+4.49%) cumulatively contributed +61 points to the index. Steel sector led the gains in the market, where ASTL (+4.33%) and MUGHAL (+4.57%) closed close to their respective upper circuits, while INIL (+2.47%) and ISL (+3.20%) closed positive. POL (+2.62%) and PPL (+0.20%) from the E&P sector closed positive as crude oil prices edged higher trading at $66.99/bbl. Pressure was witnessed in the cement sector where major laggards of the sector were PIOC (-2.99%), LUCK (-1.69%), DGKC (-0.52%) and MLCF (-0.26%).
