Daily Times

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) managed to land in the green zone, maintaining its winning streak, as the benchmark KSE 100 Index gained 109 points amid foreign investors ended the first session of October as net buyers with a net inflow of $0.482 million recorded.

KSE 100 Index marked its intraday low of 32,180.71 which later recovered its losses and reached an intraday high of 32,388.73 after gaining 134.41 points. The index finally closed clocked at 32,363.35 higher by 109.03 points. The KMI 30 Index lost 37.21 points to end at 51,508.54, while the KSE All Share Index gained 35.84 points, settling at 23,536.08.The overall volumes remained decent and were recorded at 181.36 million

The highest activity was witnessed in the Cement Sector, as increase in the prices of cement made the valuations of cement stocks appear highly lucrative to investors. Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited, Unity Foods Limited and Worldcall Telecom led the volume chart. The scripts had exchanged 16.30 million shares, 15.97 million shares and 13.54 million shares respectively.

The major contributor to the index was HBL which contributed 82 points followed by UBL with 20 points, NBP with 12 points, DGKC with 12 points and BAFL with 11 points.

The cement sector managed to gain 2.11pc in its cumulative market capitalization following reports in the media that cement prices are expected to hike in the northern region. D G Khan Cement Company Limited Fauji Cement Company Limited and Kohat Cement Company Limited all closed with decent gains.

The most points taken off the index was by OGDC which stripped the index of 20 points followed by DAWH with 18 points, MCB with 17 points, PPL with 13 points and POL with 12 points.All Share Volume increased by 0.63 Million to 181.36 Million Shares. Market Cap increased by Rs.9.80 Billion.

The banking sector (+98.78 points), cement sector (+47.53 points) and oil and gas marketing sector (+17.87 points) saved the KSE-100 Index from landing in the red zone. Banking giants Habib Bank Limited (HBL +82.28 points), United Bank Limited (UBL +19.67 points) and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP +12.17 points) remained the top positive contributors to the index.

On the global watch Asian shares fell after U.S. stocks posted their worst loss in five weeks on Wednesday after a surprisingly limp report on the nation’s manufacturing that stirred worries about the economic outlook.

Stocks on Wall Street slid to one month low after new data revealed the worst manufacturing numbers since 2009, which when added to recent disappointing data from China, Japan and other leading economies helped stoke fears of a looming recession.