KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange remained in green zone till midday as the benchmark 100-index gained 99 points to take the tally to 45659 level on Monday.
The stocks started new week on positive note and added 64 points in early trading to reach 45624 level.
Last week, the PSX benchmark KSE-100 index shrugged off external woes and closed at 45,560 points, up 1.2 percent WoW. Key sectors such as banks (up 1.2 percent WoW on anticipations of rate hike in monetary policy announcement), cements (up 2.0 percent WoW on further prices increases in the north region) and fertilizers (up 2.6 percent WoW on possible price increases amidst improving dynamics) led the charge and contributed most to the index.
In terms of specific scrips, K-Electric (KE) remained the talk of the town as Shanghai Electric submitted fresh intentions to acquire majority stake in the company. Despite delays in the announcement of the new Multi Year Tariff (MYT), the stock appreciated by 11 percent WoW as the Prime Minister assured the acquirer of full support in clearance of bureaucratic hurdles. Activity also improved as indicated by increase in average volume traded (up 24 percent WoW to 240m shares/day) and average value traded (up 13 percent WoW to $86m/day).