Daily Times

The KSE-100 Index remained in the green zone throughout Friday’s trading session on the back of optimism in the oil sector after the Prime Minister’s statement that Pakistan may soon hit oil and gas jackpot.

An equity analyst at Trust Securities said the benchmark KSE-100 index opened the weeks last trading session 62 points in the “green zone” and went on to make a high of 336 points taking the index to a level of 38,721, but similar to the past few trading sessions the market kept fluctuating, However, even though the index fluctuation took place the market maintained its position in the “green zone”, one reason for the market to operate in this matter was that the country foreign exchange reserves surged by 8.8 percent and stand at $8.84 billion and as the trading session came to an end the index showed some lose in points and went on to close off at a level of 38,590, going up 147points, in the “green”.

The benchmark index touched high of +336 points and closed at 38,532 levels. Oil remained the major point of attraction among foreign and local institutions including Oil Gas Development Company (OGDC), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and Pakistan Oil Fields (POL).

Total traded volume was recorded at 85 million shares, up 4 percent day-on-day (DoD0. In particular, high volumes were seen in Pakgen Power Limited (PKGP) (+5.3%), Bank of Punjab (BOP) (+0.6%), OGDC (+3.0%), HUBC (-2.4%) and PPL (+4.0%).

PKGP (+5.3%) topped the list with 12 million shares changing hands after it announced its annual financial result of EPS 3.99 and DPS 1.50.

An equity analyst Ms Arhum Ghous said the market is expected to remain under pressure as clarity on the economic front continues to evade investors. Despite expectations that IMF negotiations are to conclude soon, investors fear IMF demands such as flexible exchange rate and reform agenda implementation would bring further inflationary pressure and demand slowdown.

Published in Daily Times, March 23^rd 2019.