LAHORE: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) after a slow start to the day surged after clarity on the political front. The government and opposition parties have finally agreed upon nomination for the caretaker prime minister as the current tenure of the government is due to end on May 31, 2018.
On the economic front, on Friday State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced a second upward revision in the policy rate 50 basis points to 6.5 per cent, lifting it to a level of three-year high. Average headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) in ten months of this fiscal year remained at 3.70 per cent against the full-year target of 6.00 per cent mainly due to low food inflation. But rising oil prices pose a risk of increased inflationary pressures.
The KSE 100 index came back from intraday low of 41,872.34 when the index was down 201.75 points. It marked a high of 42,543.27 with a rise of 469.18 points just to settle almost flat. KMI 30 index was not much different, the index was down over a 1,000 points before touching Monday’s high with a rise of 746.59 points. It ended with a minor loss of 72.83 points while the KSE All Share Index closed up 114.40 points.
Market volumes for the session were recorded at 139.34 million with Pak Elektron Limited (PAEL +4.52 per cent) in the lead. The script marked its fresh 52-week low of Rs33.39 and fetched 16.13 million in volumes. It has sunk 71 per cent in a year’s span.
TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG +2.68 per cent) followed with 9.35 million shares exchanged also touched year’s low of Rs24.90 during the day. TRG has fallen over 50 per cent during this time.
Though crude oil prices have been riding upwards, the oil and gas exploration sector did not crawl up along. The sector shed 1.35 per cent from its cumulative market capitalization on Monday.
