KARACHI: After witnessing two-day bearish trend, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned around on Thursday owing to drop in coal prices, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 212.81 points (+0.48 percent) to close at 44,373.23 points.
The market opened on a positive note and remained positive till the end of the session. The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 574.1 points, showing an intraday high of 44,947.3 points and a low of 44,373.2 points (last day closing point).
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 118.07 points (+0.39 percent) to close at 30,578.76 points, while All Share Islamic Index gained 87.84 points (+0.4 percent) to close at 21,738.09 points.
A total of 384 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 192 closed up, shares of 174 closed down while shares of 18 companies remained unchanged. Out of 95 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 54 closed up and 35 closed down and six remained unchanged.
The overall market volume increased by 43.28 million to 296.04 million shares. Total volume traded for the KSE-100 Index was 111.94 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 255 to 109,699, while the value traded increased by Rs0.38 billion to Rs10.46 billion. The market capitalisation increased by Rs30.04 billion.
Among scrips, WTL led the volumes with 57.5 million shares, followed by TELE (36.9 million) and TREET (12.8 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, TELE, TREET, UNITY and JSCL, which formed 44 percent of total volumes.
The sector wise, the index was propped up by cement with 101 points, commercial banks with 65 points, technology & communication with 36 points, textile composite with 23 points and engineering with 7 points.
The most points added to the index were by TRG which contributed 40 points followed by CHCC with 26 points, HBL with 23 points, MLCF with 22 points and KTML with 20 points.
The index was let down sector wise by chemical with 21 points, fertilizer with 6 points, oil & gas marketing companies with 6 points, sugar & allied industries with 5 points and power generation & distribution with 4 points.
The most points taken off the index were by COLG which stripped the index of 17 points followed by ENGRO with 11 points, POL with 10 points, LUCK with 10 points and EPCL with 8 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited (AHL) said that the drop in coal prices primarily reversed the selling tide in the cement sector, which led the index from the front. Similarly, the overnight dent in international oil prices caused downward pressure in E&P stocks.
The positive stride in the index also propelled steel sector scrips and investors considered taking positions. Overall, the index added a total of 574 points during the session and closed +213 points, they said.
They said the cement sector stole the limelight, with MLCF garnering the most volume (besides hitting upper circuit) among cement sector stocks, followed by DGKC.
Selling pressure ensued, which brought the stock price of MLCF down from upper circuit by the end of session. Besides cement, banks and refinery sector stocks got investors’ preference, they added.
