Daily Times

The Pakistan Stock Exchange bounced back on Thursday to break a three-day losing streak and the benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 603.04 points (+1.33 percent) to close at 45,965.62 points.

The KSE-100 Index remained positive throughout the session touching an intraday high of 46,004.6 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 320.62 points (+1.02 percent) to close at 31,647.87 points. Likewise, the All Share Islamic Index gained 278.01 points (+1.22 percent) to close at 22,974.04 points.

A total of 416 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 286 closed up, shares of 111 closed down while shares of 19 companies remained unchanged. All share volume decreased by 88.53 million to 468.97 million shares, while market capitalisation increased by Rs83.47 billion. Total trades decreased by 30,201 to 147,636, while value traded increased by Rs2.99 billion to Rs23.26 billion.

Among scrips, TELE led the trading volume chart with 36.2 million shares, followed by BYCO (34.6 million) and UNITY (33.17 million).

Sectors propping up the index were commercial banks with 160 points, cement with 145 points, technology & communication with 95 points, fertilizer with 42 points and power generation & distribution with 41 points. The most points added to the index was by TRG which contributed 96 points followed by LUCK with 87 points, UBL with 57 points, HBL with 50 points and ENGRO with 27 points.

Sector wise, the index was let down by tobacco with 5 points, investment banks / investment companies / securities companies with 5 points, insurance with 4 points, glass & ceramics with 3 points and textile spinning with 2 points. The most points taken off the index was by MCB which stripped the index of 10 points followed by DAWH with 8 points, NML with 6 points, EFUG with 6 points and PMPK with 5 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market took the cue from UBL’s financial results (with a declaration of Rs9.5/share dividend), which were announced in the pre-open session and added a total of 642 points during the session. Besides, anticipation of FATF’s decision on Pakistan status on the grey list helped the index move up.

Sentiment remained buoyed throughout the session and price gains were observed across the board, said the analysts. Besides, the anticipation of FATF’s decision on Pakistan’s status on the grey list helped the index move up. The investors’ sentiments remained buoyed throughout the session, in addition, strong corporate results by UBL, MLCF, PIOC, Nestle, and GTYR further strengthened investors’ confidence, said the analysts.