Karachi: Record breaking spree continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange PSX on Wednesday, third consecutive day, with benchmark KSE 100 index achieving new milestones and closing at another all time high of 41253.46 points mainly due to buying in second and third tier scrips on back of strong earnings outlook. The KSE 100 index gained 129.4 point during the trading session.
Start to the day was on a positive note as KSE100 Index was pushed up by gains in select index heavy names notably Lucky Cement, Pakistan State Oil and Pakistan Oilfields, while sideboard plays also fetched upbeat activity from retail investors and traded higher with retail favourite Bank of Punjab maintaining its winning streak.
“Autos and textile stocks outperformed the index on falling yen and rising cotton prices. Higher global crude oil prices, subdued noise over LoC aggression and speculation on positive outcome CPEC projects in the banking, steel and cement sectors played a catalyst role ahead of quarter end earning announcements at PSX”, said senior analyst Ahsan Mehnti.
Wider market however witnessed profit-taking mid day and erased more than half of morning gains with Pakistan Petroleum contributing most to day’s losses, followed by index heavy Habib Bank and United Bank Limited, analysts at Elixir Securities said adding that MCB Bank MCB however stood strong and landed among top three stocks on leaders boards on institutional buying.
Stocks in the Automobile sector such as Millat Tractors and Hinopak Motors closed at their upper limit led by positive investor sentiment. Result driven activity was also witnessed in Ghandhara Industries, closing at its upper limit, according to Topline Securities report.
Turnover was by 17.5 percent to 657 million share against 559 million share traded on Tues. The trading value of shares also increased by 4 percent to Rs 17.9 billion $172 million from Rs 17.3 billion.
Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 42 million shares traded followed by Bank of Punjab with 41 million shares. Other volume leaders were PIA C (39 million), Summit Bank (33 million), Japan Power (31 million), TRG Pakistan (23 million), Pace Pakistan (22 million), Silk Bank (20 million) and Aisha Steel Mill (18 million).
Shares of 453 companies changed hand on Wednesday out of which the value of 282 companies’ shares appreciated while those of 153 registered decline. However, 18 companies remained unchanged.
Equity analysts expect see volatile and lackluster trading ahead of the weekend with benchmark KSE100 index hovering over 41,000 level.