KARACHI : The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued with a bullish trend on Tuesday and the benchmark KSE-100 Index breached the psychological level of 48,000-mark after almost four years.
The KSE-100 Index gained 294.92 points (+0.62 percent) to close the session at 48,191.26 points amid lower-than-expected inflation figures. The index remained positive throughout the session, touching an intra-day high of 48,237.6 points.
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 189.57 points (+0.59 percent) to close at 32,428.26 points, while All Share Islamic Index gained 174.97 points (+0.75 percent) to close at 23,520.43 points.
A total of 421 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 258 closed up, shares of 152 closed down while shares of 11 companies remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 20.22 million to 1392.04 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 4,523 to 256,020, and value traded decreased by Rs1.56 billion to Rs30.49 billion. The market capitalisation increased by Rs48.61 billion.
Among scrips, WTL topped the volumes with 353.9 million shares, followed by BYCO (94.1 million) and SILK (86.1 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL , BYCO, SILK, PTC and PIBTL, which formed 46 percent of total volumes.
The sectors propping up the index were oil & gas exploration companies with 83 points, fertilizer with 57 points, power generation & distribution with 25 points, pharmaceuticals with 23 points and food & personal care products with 17 points. The most points added to the index was by ENGRO which contributed 41 points followed by PPL with 39 points, LUCK with 22 points, HUBC with 22 points and OGDC with 21 points.
Sector wise, the index was let down by automobile assembler with 14 points, oil & gas marketing companies with 13 points, sugar & allied industries with 1 points, real estate investment trust with one point and leasing companies with one point. The most points taken off the index was by MEBL which stripped the index of 13 points followed by SNGP with 10 points, PSO with 10 points, FCCL with 8 points and TRG with 8 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained upbeat in the day in anticipation of budgetary measures, which was further supported by an uptick in international crude prices courtesy of Brent that crossed US$ 70/bbl. They said that O&GMCs and the power sector took turns on the back of release of payments due from the government on account of circular debt, however, no news came to fruition.
The E&P sector contributed to the upside in the index on the back of positivity in crude oil prices, whereas the fertilizer sector added points to the table on budget incentives.
They said that investors’ sentiments in the bourse were also buoyed due to a better-than-expected revenue collection of Rs4,143 billion during the first eleven months of the current fiscal year. Further, the market also gained impetus from the statement issued by the Ministry of Petroleum to keep the petroleum prices unchanged for the next fifteen days, they added. TLTP
