KSE-100 rises 0.46% owing to expectation of assistance from China, Saudi Arabia

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) staged a turnaround on Monday and the KSE-100 Index rose 0.46% with brokerage houses attributing the increase to a reported successful visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to China and Saudi Arabia.

While expecting modest foreign support from the two nations, investors poured fresh investment in the equity market. By the end of the session, the KSE-100 Index was up 191.05 points or 0.46% to close at 42,047.36.

Negative sentiment prevails, KSE-100 down over 230 points

Trading began with a jump and the index increased throughout the day, before profit-taking erased some of the gains.

Automobile, banking and oil sectors closed higher while chemical and cement ended mixed. On the other hand, fertiliser space closed with a loss.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that the week got off to a solid start for the PSX with a strong momentum.

“The benchmark KSE-100 index opened in the green and moved in the same range throughout the day, due to favourable expectations of monetary inflows from Saudi Arabia and China, as well as attractive valuations of stocks kept the investors involved in the market,” it said. “The third tier stocks had respectable volumes while overall volumes remained robust.”

A report from Capital Stake stated that the PSX ended first trading session of the week in high spirits.

“Indices traded in green all day long, whereas volumes fell from last close,” the report said. “As per analysts, news of financial support from China and Saudi Arabia helped recover losses made in previous week.”

On the economic front, a total of 485,873 Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA) have been opened since its launch. Funds worth $5,295 million were received through RDA during the same period.

Rupee registered back-to-back gains against the US dollar, and improved 0.12% or Re0.26 in the inter-bank market on Monday to close at 221.66.

Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 index north included, technology and communication (36.52 points) oil and gas exploration (31.44 points), and oil and gas marketing (23.34 points).

Volume on the all-share index declined to 240.2 million from 298.09 million on Friday. Similarly, the value of shares traded decreased to Rs5.45 billion from Rs5.46 billion recorded in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 43.5 million shares, followed by Dewan Motors with 17.75 million shares and Hascol Petroleum Limited with 16.65 million shares

Shares of 336 companies were traded on Monday, of which 188 registered an increase, 120 recorded a fall, and 28 remained unchanged.