KARACHI: Stocks continued with the positive momentum on Friday, as the indices drove north right from the beginning, helping the benchmark KSE-100 Index cruise past the 39,000-mark.
Foreign investors offloaded stocks for the fifth consecutive session on Thursday. A net outflow of $0.833 million was recorded.
On the economic front, foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank rose 2.84pc on a weekly basis, as per the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan. On November 22, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $8,682.3 million, up $240 million compared with $8,442.1 million in the previous week. The central bank attributed the increase to official inflows.
The overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $15,577.7 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $6,895.4 million.
The KSE-100 Index recorded its intraday high at 39,452.76 after gaining 746.49 points. It closed higher by 581.38 points at 39,287.65. The KMI-30 Index accumulated 432.39 points to settle at 62,713.95, while the KSE All Share Index closed higher by 399.40 points at 27,838.52.
The overall trading volumes improved significantly, from 348.53 million in the previous session to 431.85 million, with 261.74 million coming from the 100 index. The Bank of Punjab (BOP +3.84pc) topped the volume chart, followed by Pak Elektron Limited (PAEL +1.69pc) and K-Electric Limited (KEL +2.19pc). The scripts had exchanged 51.84 million, 20.09 million and 16.43 million shares, respectively.
The KSE-100 Index’s one-month return was recorded at 15pc or 5,083.97 points.
Sectors that helped the index stay in green throughout the day included banking (+277.06 points), power generation and distribution (+44.67 points) and cement (+31.29 points). Among the companies, Habib Bank Limited (HBL +96.84 points), United Bank Limited (UBL +76.06 points) and Hub Power Company Limited (HUBC +37.35 points) contributed maximum points to the index.
The refinery sector managed to add 4.97pc to its cumulative market capitalization. Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BYCO +5.18pc), National Refinery Limited (NRL +5.00pc), Attock Refinery Limited (ATRL +4.22pc) and Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL +4.96pc) closed with decent gains.
