KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday bounced back after a bearish run as the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 206 points to close at 44,255 points.
The index opened higher and touched the day’s high of 44,436 before settling. In all, 228.3 million shares worth Rs9.8 billion were traded at the bourse. Of the 375 traded scrips, 214 advanced, 146 declined and 15 remained unchanged.
The technology and communication sector dominated trading with 31.4m shares traded while engineering and cement followed with 28m and 27m shares traded respectively.
The stocks opened bullish and added 148 points to reach 44197 level in early trading. The Pakistan Stock Exchange continued upward rally and gained 361 points to take the tally to 44410 level till midday.
Yesterday, the bear-run continued at the PSX as investors continued to book profits owing to decline in WTI price. The 100-share index closed down 184.06 points at 44,049.05 points. The index has lost around 1,000 points in last 5 trading sessions. Selling pressure was seen in banking stocks as investors weighed in on potential size of pension liabilities.
Traded volumes were up 2 percent whereas traded value was up 25 percent. Second tier stocks were volume leaders. Top 5 index point detractors included UBL (-4.1 percent), MCB (-2.9 percent), LUCK (-2.6 percent), OGDC (-1.6 percent) & NESTLE (-5 percent), which withheld 248 points from the index while FFC (+3 percent), PAKT (+5 percent), BAHL (+1.2 percent), NML (+2.1 percent) & EFERT (+1.3 percent) added 100 points to the index. On the sector front, commercial banks withheld 184 points whereas fertilizer sector added 66 points.
