KARACHI: Bulls dominated the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday, with the benchmark index crossing the 45,000 mark amid improved market sentiment.
Global equity markets, on the other hand, displayed a negative trend, whereas crude oil prices also moved south, with WTI crude price declining 0.90pc to $64.23 while Brent crude price dropping 1.04pc to $67.68 (as at 3:54pm PST).
“The market continued accumulating gains after clarity on the political front, whereby PDM (an alliance of opposition parties) have put their plans for country-wide demonstration in abeyance. Resultantly, investors took interest across the board with particular focus on tech stocks, followed by banks, cement, O&GMCs and E&Ps. Rupee’s persistent appreciation also contributed to the positivity, along with news that the government is engaging banks to launch international bonds for external financing,” a report issued by Arif Habib Ltd read.
MARKET SUMMARY
The benchmark KSE-100 Index remained in the green zone throughout the session, registering its intraday high at 45,540.63 after gaining 683.57 points. It settled higher by 593.25 points at 45,450.31.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index accumulated 848.14 points to end at 74,910.27, while the KSE All Share Index gathered 394.84 points, closing at 31,058.15.
The overall market volumes improved from 408.42 million shares in the previous session to 508.84 million shares (+25pc). Average traded value also increased by 25pc, from $128.3 million to $160 million. TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG +7.49pc), Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd (BYCO +10.99pc) and Pakistan Refinery Ltd (PRL +5.16pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 34.43 million, 31.67 million and 26.73 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that painted the benchmark index green included banking (+169.12 points), technology & communication (+95.94 points) and cement (+63.58 points). Among the companies, TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG +99.46 points), United Bank Ltd (UBL +58.49 points) and Habib Bank Ltd (HBL +44.74 points) remained the top contributors.
Adding 5.56pc to its cumulative market capilisation, the refinery sector ended as the session’s top performer, with Attock Refinery Ltd (ATRL 6.13pc), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (PRL 5.16pc) and Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd (BYCO 10.99pc) posting significant gains.
In a notification to the exchange, Agritech Ltd (AGL 3.18pc) informed that the gas supply of the company’s urea plant has been restored by SNGPL and that the plant has restarted with effect from March 17, 2021.
