KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed volatile activity on Thursday, with the benchmark index taking a beating in early trade before bouncing back on late buying to close in green.
Equity markets around the world also displayed a positive trend, whereas crude oil prices slipped further from the previous close; WTI crude price declining 1.22pc to $39.73 while Brent crude price falling 1.21pc to $41.79.
“The market remained under selling pressure for most part of the day, owing to which the index slipped over 450 points intraday. However, sporadic buying in blue-chip stocks, especially in cement and banking sectors, brought the index back into the positive zone,” said a report issued by AHL Ltd.
MARKET SUMMARY
The KSE-100 Index hovered in the red for almost the entire session, recorded its intraday low at 40,113.95 (-457.53 points). The index, however, changed its direction during the final trading hour, touching its intraday high at 40,735.84 (+164.36 points). It settled higher by 105.44 points at 40,735.84.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index gained 156.36 points to end at 64,894.43, while the KSE All Share Index added 23.71 points, closing at 28,993.69.
The overall market volumes shrunk from 473.73 million shares in the previous session to 371.66 million shares (-22pc). Average traded value also dropped by 19pc, from $93.2 million to $75.8 million. Hascol Petroleum Ltd (HASCOL -7.48pc), K-Electric Ltd (KEL -1.43pc) and Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY -2.94pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 67.64 million, 28.89 million and 26.06 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that helped the benchmark index close in the green included banking (+82.90 points), cement (+47.33 points) and oil & gas exploration (+26.52 points). Among the companies, Habib Bank Ltd (HBL +27.82 points), MCB Bank Ltd (MCB +27.51 points) and United Bank Ltd (UBL +24.25 points) remained the top contributors.
Adding 0.74pc to its cumulative market capitalization, the cement sector ended as the session’s top performer, with DG Khan Cement Company Ltd (DGKC 4.91pc), Fauji Cement Company Ltd (FCCL +1.06pc) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (MLCF +1.84pc) posting decent gains.
Meanwhile, in a notification to the exchange, Jahanghir Siddiqui & Company Ltd (JSCL +1.95pc) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiaries, JS Fuel (Pvt) Ltd and Energy Infrastructure Holding (Pvt) Ltd, have approved amalgamation.
