KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bullish on Friday and the benchmark KSE-100 Index crossed the 47,000-point mark.
The KSE-100 Index gained 335.54 points (+0.72 percent) to close at 47,126.29 points. The KSE-100 index moved in a range of 548.3 points, touching an intra-day high of 47,246.5 points and intra-day low of 46,698.2 points.
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 240.38 points (+0.76 percent) to close at 31,703.75 points, while All Share Islamic Index gained 144.43 points (+0.63 percent) to close at 22,924.36 points.
A total of 414 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 239 closed up, shares of 160 closed down while shares of 15 companies remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 1260.17 million to 959.89 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 101,219 to 183,093, and value traded decreased by Rs20.09 billion to Rs22.75 billion. However, the market capitalisation increased by Rs64.56 billion.
Among scrips, WTL realised trading volumes of 380.4 million shares, followed by SILK (56.3 million) and BYCO (38.7 million).
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, SILK, BBYCO, HUMNL and NRSL, which formed 56 percent of total volumes.
The sectors propping up the index were commercial banks with 98 points, oil & gas exploration companies with 96 points, oil & gas marketing companies with 53 points, fertilizer with 39 points and automobile assembler with 22 points. The most points added to the index was by BAHL which contributed 47 points followed by SYS with 46 points, PPL with 46 points, HBL with 39 points and OGDC with 35 points.
Sector-wise, the index was let down by chemical with 11 points, insurance with 7 points, automobile parts & accessories with 5 points, technology & communication with 4 points and pharmaceuticals with 3 points. The most points taken off the index was by TRG which stripped the index of 48 points followed by AICL with 11 points, DGKC with 8 points, COLG with 7 points and SEARL with 5 points.
According to analysts, the macro news flow on Pakistan’s green bond as well as improved real GDP estimates helped lift investor sentiment, which was further supplemented by inching up of international crude oil prices. They said that the market showed consistent performance with a further increase of 456 points and closing the session +356 points. E&P, O&GMCs, banks and fertilizer sector stocks performed well even after a major sell-off of E&P sector stocks a day earlier in MSCI rebalancing. Cement and steel sector stocks didn’t contribute much to the index, they added.
The PSX on Thursday recorded a trading volume of over 2 billion shares, the highest on any single day. Commenting on this, an economist tweeted, “Brokers, punters, and analysts are upbeat about record-breaking volumes traded at the PSX in the last few sessions. Every day is an all-time high. But that growth in volumes is not necessarily healthy, as volume leaders are extremely low-value stocks.”
