KARACHI
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) set another record on Monday when its benchmark KSE-100 Index crosses 74,000 points level for the first time in history during intra-day; however, the index closed below the level at 73,799.11 points with a gain of 713.61 points (0.98 percent).
The market opened on a positive note and remained positive for the entire session amid a buying spree. The index has surged 78.58 percent over the past year and is up 14.13 percent year-to-date. Profit-taking was witnessed in the last two-hour trading that eroded some gains of the day; however, the index closed at a record high.
Market gurus attributed the bullish trend at the PSX to an expected fall in interest rate and positive momentum in terms of Pakistan’s pursuit of another larger program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “The positive vibes from the IMF rejuvenated foreign interest at attractive valuations and continuous progress on macro front could likely be accredited to this achievement,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
Another brokerage house Arif Habib Limited in its report earlier during the day had said that the upward momentum was anticipated to carry it onward 73,600. “Should it breach 73,600, attention would then shift towards the range of 74,000,” it had added.
During the previous week, PSX witnessed a bullish trend due to fresh buying on expectations of more foreign inflows, and improving economic indicators. The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 1,183.41 points on a week-on-week basis and closed at a new highest-ever level of 73,085.50 points.
The benchmark index remained positive throughout the day, showing an intraday high of 74,114.23 points and a low of 73,109.76 points. The total volume of the KSE-100 index was 308.96 million shares.
In the session, of the 100 index companies 66 closed up, 29 closed down, 4 were unchanged, while 1 remained untraded. The KSE-100 Index was supported by oil & gas exploration companies (231 points), commercial banks (131 points), investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies (56 points), leather & tanneries (42 points), and pharmaceuticals (38 points).
On the flip-side, the index was let down by cable & electrical goods (16.35 points), cement (5 points), insurance (5 points), property (4 points), and transport (1 point).
Companies adding points to the index were POL (142 points), DAWH (52 points), ENGRO (43 points), SRVI (42 points), and PPL (38 points). Meanwhile, companies that dragged the index lower were FFC (25 points), PAEL (16 points), PIOC (15 points), FFBL (11 points), and KEL (10 points).
In the broader market, the All-Share index closed at 47,934.88 with a net gain of 388.34 points. Total market volume was 721.60 million shares compared to 741.20m from the previous session while traded value was recorded at Rs25.65 billion showing an increase of Rs377.22 million. There were 297,017 trades reported in 385 companies with 240 closing up, 119 closing down and 26 remaining unchanged.
