KARACHI
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned bullish on Thursday and the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed above the 50,000 points level for the first time since May 31, 2017.
The KSE-100 Index closed with a massive gain of 933.68 points (+1.89 percent) to close at 50,365.15 points. The market opened on a positive note and remained in green territory throughout the session. The positive sentiment was fuelled by treasury bills’ auction on Wednesday. The auction saw the highest-ever participation in the one-year treasury bills, with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) receiving bids worth Rs2.155 trillion. This suggests that the market is anticipating a relatively stable or downward trend in interest rates.
Moreover, the rupee snapped a two-day losing streak against the US dollar in the inter-bank market with a gain of Rs1.48. Similarly, the Pakistani rupee recovered Re1 against the greenback in the open market. This all provided confidence to investors. Overall, the benchmark index has gained 4,192 points in the last 14 sessions.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 963 points, showing an intraday high of 50,399.92 points and an intraday low of 49,436.92 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 575.64 points (+1.71 percent) to close at 33,626.52 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 490.48 points (+1.99 percent) to close at 24,612.47 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 91.94 million to 249.126 million shares against 157.19 million shares traded a session earlier. The overall market volumes increased by 94.87 million shares to 427.48 million shares against 332.61 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 83.16 million shares, followed by PRL (37.67 million) and WTL (25.88 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, PRL. WTL, PPL, and OGDC, which formed around 43 percent of total volumes.
A total of 361 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 345 a session earlier, out of which shares of 255 closed up, shares of 94 closed down while shares of 12 companies remained unchanged. A total of 98 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 92 in the previous session, out of which share prices of 77 companies closed up, 20 closed down and one remained unchanged.
The number of total trades increased by 37,339 to 178,725 from 141,386 a session earlier, while the value traded increased by Rs5.77 billion to Rs14.59 billion against Rs8.82 billion in the previous session.
In terms of rupee, UPFL remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs750 (+3.53 percent) per share, closing at Rs22,000. The runner-up remained NESTLE, the share price of which climbed up by Rs90 (+1.23 percent) to Rs7,390. RMPL remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs390 (-4.65 percent) per share, closing at Rs8,000, followed by AABS, the share price of which fell by Rs16 (-3.1 percent) to close at Rs500 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards north remained commercial banks (210 points), oil & gas exploration companies (203 points), fertilizer (153 points), power generation & distribution (117 points), and oil & gas marketing companies (94 points). The major companies adding points to the index remained PPL (109 points), ENGRO (104 points), HUBC (90 points), OGDC (80 points), and PSO (57 points).
The sectors taking the index towards south were synthetic & rayon (6 points), miscellaneous and transport (3 points each), and leather & tanneries and property (2 points each). The major companies depriving the index of points remained RMPL (9 points), TRG (8 points), IBFL (6 points), PSEL (5 points), and UNITY (3 points).
