KARACHI
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued with its bullish momentum for the ninth straight session on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 297.17 points (+0.61 percent) to close at 48,771.71 points.
The market opened on a positive note but switched between the green and red territories for most part of the session. The last hour buying pressure eroded all the losses of the day and helped the benchmark index to gain around 300 points. Overall, the benchmark index has gained 2,598.92 points in the last nine sessions. The rupee’s consistent appreciation over the past few weeks has given investors a sense of confidence.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 470.88 points, showing an intraday high of 48,830.26 points and an intraday low of 48,359.38 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 170.77 points (+0.52 percent) to close at 32,542.92 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 150.56 points (+0.63 percent) to close at 23,740.24 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 52.71 million to 223.23 million shares against 275.94 million shares traded a session earlier. The overall market volumes decreased by 54.17 million shares to 342.29 million shares against 396.46 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 112.99 million shares, followed by WTL (17.10 million) and NCPL (12.17 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, WTL, NCPL, PRL, and TRG, which formed over 48 percent of total volumes.
A total of 319 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 362 a session earlier, out of which shares of 146 closed up, shares of 157 closed down while shares of 16 companies remained unchanged. A total of 93 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 96 in the previous session, out of which share price of 51 companies closed up, 41 closed down and one remained unchanged.
The number of total trades decreased by 9,932 to 145,045 from 154,977 a session earlier, while the value traded increased by Rs1.21 billion to Rs11.74 billion against Rs10.53 billion in the previous session.
In terms of rupee, RMPL remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs350 (+4.38 percent) per share, closing at Rs8,350. The runner-up remained BATA, the share price of which climbed up by Rs50.61 (+3.08 percent) to Rs1,696.25. PECO remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs24.93 (-7.49 percent) per share, closing at Rs308.11, followed by DLL, the share price of which fell by Rs17.99 (-7.5 percent) to close at Rs222.01 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards north remained fertilizer (164 points), power generation & distribution (47 points), oil & gas exploration companies (40 points), pharmaceuticals (36 points), and automobile assembler (28 points). The major companies adding points to the index remained EFERT (68 points), FFC (57 points), HUBC (40 points), ENGRO (36 points), and UBL (24 points).
The sectors taking the index towards south were technology & communication (58 points), chemical (11 points), oil & gas marketing companies (6 points), glass & ceramics (6 points), and textile composite (3 points). The major companies depriving the index of points remained TRG (67 points), MEBL (11 points), COLG (8 points), GHGL (6 points), and PKGS (5 points).
