KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed fluctuation and added only 23 points to reach 41568.77 points level in early trading.
On Thursday, the stocks staged strong recovery as the 100-share index touched new highs of 41545.35 points after rallying by 622 points, (up 1.5%). The rally in the local bourse was led by the oil sector that rallied as global crude oil prices held near a 15-month high after government data showed that US stockpiles declined unexpectedly, trimming an overhang of inventories. OGDC (up 2.26%) and PPL (4.56%) were the biggest index movers of the sector yesterday. Similarly, rally in the banking sector was witnessed on the back of better-than-expected 9-month results. Both BAHL and HBL announced their 9M2016 results, with EPS clocking in at Rs4.88/share and Rs17.47/share respectively. Overall, volumes increased by 10.8 percent to 561 million shares, while value rose by 50 percent to Rs18.6 billion/$178 million. BOP led the volumes with 68m shares traded; stock gained 3.9%.
