10th successive positive finish: KSE-100 closes near 42,000 after 347-point gain

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw an upbeat trading session on Tuesday and the KSE-100 Index jumped 0.83% on the back of encouraging market news, share buybacks, and financial results. The market rose for the 10th successive session and during this time, over 2,100 points were added to it. The positive run commenced on April 12.

KSE-100 inches upward as political tensions ease

By the end of the session, the KSE-100 Index rose 346.79 points or 0.83% to close at 41,927.64 points.

The market saw a sharp upward open and strong buying activity helped maintain the trend till the end of the session.

A report from Capital Stake stated that bulls of the PSX led the market on Tuesday.

Index-heavy automobile, cement, fertiliser, banking and chemical sectors closed in the green. Oil and gas space ended the day in the red.

“Indices accumulated gains all day long, while volumes declined from the last close,” it said.

A report from Arif Habib Limited cited that a positive session was observed at the PSX to kick-off the business week as another buyback of shares was announced by one of the largest conglomerate Lucky Cement, igniting investor confidence to push up its price to the upper circuit and keeping the entire cement sector in the limelight.

Another positive announcement by Habib Bank Limited (HBL’s) sponsors’ intention to acquire additional shares of HBL from the open market drove the bulls to take charge by changing the market sentiments.

“The benchmark KSE-100 opened in the green zone and continued to trade with optimistic sentiments throughout the trading session, reaching an intraday high of 409.30 points,” it said. “Investor activity increased considerably as decent volumes were recorded across the board, with third-tier equities dominating the volume board.”

Sectors painting the benchmark KSE-100 index in green included banking (207.16 points), cement (130.92 points) and fertiliser (49.51 points).

Volume on the all-share index fell to 220 million from 268.1 million on Friday while the value of shares traded increased to Rs6.25 billion from Rs5.78 billion recorded in the previous session.

Fauji Foods was the volume leader with 22.6 million shares followed by Silk Bank with 15.6 million shares and Maple Leaf Cement with 8.7 million shares.

Shares of 357 companies were traded on Monday, of which 179 registered an increase, 152 recorded a fall and 26 remained unchanged.