KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday closed in green in line with global markets, which rallied on hopes of a potential breakthrough in the search for a vaccine against Covid-19.
“Pfizer’s announcement of Covid vaccine turned global markets hopeful of resumption of pre-Covid business activities. Besides, the local bourse reacted positively to the surge in international crude oil prices as well as a rise in US stocks (+2.5pc). Buying activity was more pronounced in exploration & production stocks, followed by banks and oil & gas marketing companies,” a report issued by Arif Habib Ltd read.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index started the session on a positive note, accumulating 813.29 points to touch its intraday high at 41,597.33. It ended higher by 369.01 points at 41,153.05.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index gathered 952.42 points to close at 65,935.93, while the KSE All Share Index added 190.58 points, settling at 28,861.45.
The overall market volumes appreciated from 276.79 million shares in the previous session to 355.98 million shares (+29pc). Average traded value also increased by 59pc, from $60 million to $95.4 million. TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -5.36pc), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (PRL +1.83pc) and Al-Shaheer Corporation Ltd (ASC +6.30pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 30.91 million, 23.53 million and 21.65 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that kept the benchmark index in green included oil & gas exploration (+176.60 points), banking (+136.40 points) and textile composite (+34.39 points). Among the companies, United Bank Ltd (UBL +66.09 points), Pak Petroleum Ltd (PPL +61.51 points) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC +55.46 points) remained the top contributors.
Adding 3.81pc to its cumulative market capitalization, the oil & gas exploration sector emerged as the session’s top performer, with OGDC (+3.97pc), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (MARI +2.09pc), PPL (+4.38pc) and Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL 4.71pc) posting decent gains.
