The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) sustained its upward rally for the third straight session on Thursday as the KSE-100 index ticked up 0.87% following encouraging remarks made by the government regarding the arrangement of $4 billion funding to bridge the financing gap highlighted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
At close on Thursday, the KSE-100 index ended the day with an increase of 356.5 points or 0.87% to close at 41,425.37 points.
KSE-100 soars 2.18% as positive triggers fuel sentiment
The guarantees of friendly nations to provide $4 billion would remove a key hurdle in the way of receipt of the next tranche from the IMF.
Meeting IMF funding gap: One friendly country has already confirmed assurance, says Miftah
Stocks also got a boost from the currency, as the rupee maintained its rise against the US dollar, which motivated market participants to assume fresh positions.
Trading began on a positive note and the market crossed the 41,500 point mark multiple times in the early hours, but selling pressure, emerging towards midday, eroded some of those gains. The market remained range-bound in the second half of the day and closed in the green.
Index heavy automobile and cement sectors closed with gains.
A report from Capital Stake stated that positive momentum was carried over from previous session as the PSX closed the day in the green.
“Indices accumulated gains all day long while volumes fell from last close,” it said.
Rupee continues merry path, closes at 226.15 against USD
Meanwhile, sectors that helped the benchmark KSE-100 index move up included banking (129.47 points), cement (75.73 points) and fertiliser (25.72 points).
Volume on the all-share index dropped to 275.4 million from 333.03 million on Wednesday. Similarly, the value of shares traded also plunged to Rs7.9 billion from Rs10.02 billion recorded in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 44.4 million shares, followed by TPL Properties with 12.2 million shares, and Pak Elektron with 12 million shares.
Shares of 343 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 212 registered an increase, 107 recorded a fall, and 24 remained unchanged.