Daily Times

The stock market closed in green for the third consecutive session on Wednesday, with benchmark KSE 100 Index registering a 1,195-point jump to close at 34,637 level.

The market kicked off on a positive tone, reaching an intraday high of +1,256 points.

An equity analyst at IIS Securities said KSE 100 Index opened on a positive note and remained bullish throughout the session. “Positive sentiments in the market were due to expectation of a support fund launching soon and lower PKR/USD volatility, which closed at 151.95.”

E&Ps, commercial banks and fertilisers were major contributors to the index gains, cumulatively contributing 724.72 points.

Overall, the index closed at 34,637.14 level after gaining 1,195.04 points, which is highest intraday level of five months.

Wednesday’s major heavyweights, namely OGDC (+5%), PPL (+5%), ENGRO (+3.8%), POL (+5%), FFC (+5%) and HUBC (+5%) contributed towards the positive close.

Traded volumes increased by 33 percent over previous day’s session to 203 million shares, while value traded increased to US$35 million. Volume leaders were BOP (+5%), KEL (+8.4%) and UNITY (+10%). Some relief was seen at the local bourse today on back of multiple rumors that 1) Cement manufacturers have agreed on an arrangement in which reservations of Fauji Cement have been addressed. 2) “Disaster Support Fund” worth around Rs17 billion rupees approved by Dr. Hafeez Shaikh. On the back of the latter, the cement sector mostly closed limit up where LUCK (+5%), DGKC (+5%), MLCF (+5%), PIOC (+5%), CHCC (+5%) and KOHC (+5%) were the major movers. E&P sector closed higher than their previous day close as POL (+5%), PPL (+5%) closed limit up and OGDC (+5%) in the green zone.

Moreover, banking space also closed higher where HBL (+3.5%), NBP (+4.5%), MCB (+1.9%) and UBL (+1.1%) closed positive. Maaz Mulla, an equity analyst, expects market to continue similar trend and recommends investors to buy on weakness.