Daily Times

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended gains for the second session in a row on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 355.19 points (+0.58 percent) to close at 61,914.34 points.

The market remained volatile in the first hour’s trading; however, later it continued its positive momentum achieved in the previous session. On the political front, arrangements in power circles have paved the way for Shahbaz Sharif, president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, to potentially secure a second term as prime minister, with the support of coalition partners. Concurrently, Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party is poised to be the coalition’s nominee for the presidency.

Investors are still anticipating a post-election rally at the PSX, however, market analysts previously recommended that investors should capitalise on the last week’s dips to achieve better gains in the future.

The benchmark index traded in a range of 491.65 points, showing an intraday high of 61,952.09 points and an intraday low of 61,460.44 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 101.39 points (+0.24 percent) to close at 41,491.87 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 130.66 points (+0.44 percent) to close at 29,955.09 points.

Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 38.8 million to 171.78 million from 210.58 million shares a session earlier. Similarly, the overall market volumes decreased by 37.94 million to 324.83 million from 362.77 million shares a session earlier.

Among scrips, PAEL topped the volumes with 23.11 million shares, followed by CNERGY (21.25 million) and PIBTL (16.26 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included PAEL, CNERGY, PIBTL, KEL, and TRG, which formed over 27 percent of total volumes.