KARACHI: After yesterday’s lacklustre performance, indices of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed bullish movements on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index surging by over 500 points intraday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers in the previous session (Monday), registering a net outflow of $1.88 million.
“The market opened on a positive note mainly due to the banking sector stocks, which have gained significant prominence post-Eid,” said a report issued by Arif Habib Ltd.
Explaining further, it stated that investors’ renewed interest in the banking stocks could be attributable to the “gradual increase in secondary market PIB yields from last month” coupled with “diminishing prospects of a rate cut” since average annual inflation for FY20 was in excess of 10pc.
“Interestingly, international crude prices surged overnight and also during today’s session, however, exploration & production stocks didn’t pay heed to the development and remained under selling pressure,” the report stated. “Cement stocks also showed some signs of revival but largely remained range-bound.”
The KSE-100 Index remained in the green zone throughout the day, registering its intraday high at 34,525.27 after gaining 503.30 points. It settled higher by 386.08 points at 34,408.05.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 added 75.54 points to end at 53,305.61, while the KSE All Share Index gathered 202.02 points, closing at 24,668.28. Of the total traded shares, 153 advanced and 147 declined.
The overall market volumes increased from 198.1 million shares in the previous session to 220.6 million shares (+11pc). Average traded value also surged by 19pc, from $44.2 million to $52.3 million. Pak Elektron Limited (PAEL -0.86pc), TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG -0.68pc) and Hascol Petroleum Limited (HASCOL -0.48pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 14.22 million, 12.57 million and 12.35 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that drove the benchmark index north included banking (+327.64 points), oil & gas exploration (+37.40 points) and automobile assembling (+13.19 points). Among the companies, banking players MCB Bank Limited (MCB +88.30 points), United Bank Limited (UBL +80.90 points) and Habib Bank Limited (HBL +62.13 points) remained the top contributors.
The banking sector turned out to be the top gainer of the session, adding 4.41pc in its cumulative market capitalization. As a result, MCB Bank Limited (+6.29pc), Habib Bank Limited (+3.90pc), United Bank Limited (+7.49pc) and Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited (+5.45pc) closed with decent gains.
