KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued with the positive momentum on Friday, recording gains for the third consecutive session amid improved market sentiments mainly due to positive economic data and vaccine hopes.
According to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan, workers’ remittances remained above $2-billion mark for the 6th consecutive month, recoding a 28pc year-on-year growth in November 2020.
Meanwhile, the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based weekly inflation was also seen in the negative zone for the third consecutive week. SPI recorded a decrease of 0.26pc over last week. Out of 51 monitored items, prices of 16 (31.37pc) increased, 13 (25.49pc) decreased, while that of 22 (43.14pc) remained unchanged.
MARKET SUMMARY
The benchmark KSE-100 Index remained in the green throughout the day, registering its intraday at 42,628.01 after accumulating 322.17. It settled higher by 166.54 points at 42,470.39.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index gained 748 points while the KSE All Share Index added 133.64 points. The session recorded 205 advancers and 150 decliners.
The overall market volumes surged to 557 million shares on Friday — highest since September 2020. The average traded value also increased 21pc to Rs23.88 billion. The benchmark index contributed 54pc to the total volume and 70pc to the traded value.
The highest number of shares were exchanged in commercial banks and oil & gas exploration sector. Among the companies, Pakistan Refinary Ltd (PRL +7.02pc) led the volume chart, followed by Azgard Nine Ltd (ANL +7.49pc) and Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY -0.63pc).
Contributing 119.34 points to the benchmark index, the oil & gas exploration sector ended as the session’s top performer, with Oil & Gas Development Company Ltd adding 44.45 points, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd 27.48 points, Pakistan Oilfields Ltd 24.54 points and Mari Petroleum Company Ltd 23.59 points.
