KARACHI
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) bounced back strongly on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 1,111.9 points (+2.57 percent) to close at 44,333.68 points.
The market opened on a negative note amid a selling spree, which brought the index down by almost 180 points. However, the market welcomed the statement of Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, wherein he hoped for a revival of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The investors also cherished the clarity over political noise where Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhary said that the process of appointment of new director general of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) will be completed soon as the government and military are on the same page. These two statements were enough to lift the market that has long been awaiting a positive trigger.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 1,385.4 points, showing an intraday high of 44,431.6 points and a low of 43,046.2 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 653.94 points (+2.19 percent) to close at 30,504.63 points, while All Share Islamic Index gained 477.5 points (+2.26 percent) to close at 21,641.42 points.
A total of 379 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 295 closed up, shares of 70 closed down while shares of 14 companies remained unchanged. Out of 97 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 83 closed up, 10 closed down and four remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes increased by 33.63 million to 388.60 million shares. Total volume traded for the KSE-100 Index was 150.13 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 17,508 to 134,592, while the value traded increased by Rs0.79 billion to Rs13.09 billion. The market capitalisation increased by Rs164.92 billion.
Among scrips, WTL led the table with 66.16 million shares, followed by UNITY (25.03 million) and TELE (18.99 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, UNITY, TELE, TREET, and HASCOL, which formed around 37 percent of total volumes.
The sectors propping up the index were commercial banks with 233 points, cement with 209 points, technology & communication with 148 points, fertilizer with 98 points and oil & gas marketing companies with 48 points. The most points added to the index were by LUCK which contributed 88 points followed by TRG with 83 points, HBL with 74 points, UBL with 66 points and FFC with 51 points.
The sector wise, the index was let down by synthetic & rayon with two points, and insurance and real estate investment trust with one point each. The most points taken off the index was by HINOON which stripped the index of 7 points followed by ABOT and IBFL with two points each, and MEBL and MTL with one point each.
