KARACHI: Bulls of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) managed to chase away the bears on Wednesday, with the indices ending with decent gains despite midday tremors.
Global equity markets also showed a positive trend, while crude oil prices moved north after reports of a drop in US crude inventories; WTI crude price surged 2.64pc to $42.80 while Brent crude price increased 2.39pc to $45.48.
“The stock market opened on a positive but selling activity made the index lose all gains posted in early trade. However, the market bounced back on reports of an increase in cement price, causing several cement stocks to hit the upper circuit,” said a report by AHL Ltd. “The exploration & production stocks also took a cue from international crude oil prices and closed the session in green. The banking sector, on the other hand, faced resistance, which kept the pressure on stock prices.”Â
MARKET SUMMARY
The KSE-100 Index witnessed volatility on Wednesday, marking its intraday low at 39,425.57 (-152.05 points) and intraday high at 39,940.22 (+362.60 points). It settled higher by 305.16 points at 39,882.78.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index gathered 995.07 points to end at 63,833.02, while the KSE All Share Index added 157.70 points, closing at 27,813.51.
The overall market volume contracted from 593.97 million in the previous session to 501.93 million (-15pc). Average traded value also declined by 16pc, from $157.8 million to $132.5 million. Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (MLCF +7.48pc) Power Cement Ltd (POWER +11.45pc) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG +7.35pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 38.48 million, 37.48 million and 34.58 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that drove the benchmark index north included cement (158.64 points), oil & gas exploration (55.22 points) and technology (35.75 points). Among the companies, Lucky Cement Ltd (LUCK 46.18 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG 35.54 points) and DG Khan Cement Company (DGKC 30.49 points) remained the top contributors to the index.
Adding 4.84pc to its total market capitalisation, the cement sector closed the session as its top gainer; Bestway Cement (BWCL 6.26pc), DG Khan Cement (DGKC 5.56pc) and Fauji Cement (FCCL 3.24pc) closed with reasonable gains.
Meanwhile, in a notification to the exchange, the Bank AlFalah Ltd (BAFL -0.19pc) stated it planned to issue Medium Term Note (MTN) programme in the form of rated, secured, listed, redeemable, fixed-rate Term Finance Certificates (TFCs) of up to Rs50 billion in multiple tranches with a maturity of 3 years or more by way of a combination of Pre-IPO Public Placement & Initial Public Offering through PSX.
The instrument will be secured against government securities.
