Second and third-tier stocks led Monday's bull-run on Pakistan Stocks Exchange where the KSE-100 index rose by 227 points to 32,706 points. The benchmark index showed volatility as was recorded hitting the highest 32,851 points and the lowest 32,462 points in intraday trade. Trading turnover rose to 152 million shares worth Rs 8.7 billion, down from Rs 9.4 billion Friday last week. Of the 344 scrips traded, 170 advanced, 152 fell while 22 remained unchanged.
Market cap also accumulated higher to Rs 6.90 trillion compared to the previous Rs 6.85 trillion. Foreign investors made a net selling of $3.31 million. Engro Fertilizer was the most-traded issue of the day with 9.4 million shares. The fertilizer giant contracted in prices to Rs 81.11 at close. TRG Pakistan, Pace Pakistan, Tri-Star Power, PIA, SSGC, Bank of Punjab, SNGPL, Fauji Cement and Pak Elektron were other best performing equities. Futures contracts were traded to the tune of 19.3 million against 19.9 million of last session.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp attributed the day's rally to higher trade in second- and third-tier scrips because of "speculations in the earnings announcement session". "Institutional support in select cement, banking sector scrips on strong financial results, upbeat local cement dispatches data for Jul-Jan'16 and likely release of $500 million IMF tranche played a catalytic role in bullish activity at PSX," the analyst said.
This, he said, was despite weak global equities and plunge in crude oil prices below $30/barrel and political noise over government privatisation initiatives. "On attractive valuation, investors took positions in pharma stocks to close in green," viewed Topline analyst Hammad Aman. Resultantly, ABOT, FEROZ, SEARLE gained 1.79, 0.79 and 4.69 percent, respectively.
Comments
Comments are closed.