Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed another bullish session on the back of buying by local and foreign investors Monday. The benchmark KSE-100 index once again crossed 50,000 crucial level. The index closed at 50,111.67 points with a healthy increase of 403.02 points.
Trading activity further improved as daily trading volumes on the ready counter increased to 399.458 million shares as compared to 395.824 million shares traded Friday. The market capitalisation increased by Rs 95 billion to Rs 9.864 trillion. Out of total 402 active scrips, 235 closed in positive, 155 in negative while the value of 12 stocks remained unchanged. Foreign investors emerged net buyers of shares worth $4.2 million.
Power Cement was the volume leader with 35.837 million shares. It gained Rs 0.93 to close at Rs 20.64 followed by Aisha Steel Mill that increased by Rs 1.25 to close at Rs 26.69 with 28.391 million shares. Azgard Nine closed at Rs 13.12, down Rs 0.01 with 26.750 million shares.
Rafhan Maize and Indus Motor Co were the top gainers with Rs 200.00 and Rs 82.99, respectively to close at Rs 7,200.00 and Rs 1,840.84. Jubilee Life Ins and Sitara Chemical were the top losers with Rs 33.90 and Rs 20.99, respectively to close at Rs 691.10 and Rs 522.01.
Khurram Schehzad, a senior analyst said that the KSE-100 index crossed 50,000 points mark once again after 60 even days. The index crossed this landmark level first time on January 26, 2017 when it closed at the highest level of 50,192 points while the highest intra-day basis was recorded on January 27, 2017, at 50,889 points.
Interesting point is, there was a decline of over 3,300 points, or 7.0 percent, or $6.7 billion of investors' worth was eroded between the highest level touched in last week of January 2017, ie, at 50,192 points, and the lowest level touched two days before the Supreme Court verdict on the Panama issue, ie, 46,874 points. On the other hand, the recovery was at a break-neck pace, with KSE-100 recovering losses in just 3 days with about 3,370pts recovered. "This clearly shows how important this one factor has increasingly become important and significant for investors, ie, political stability," he said.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that bullish trend continued on upbeat financial results in oil, banking and auto sector. Rising global equities, easing political noise, record quarter-end corporate earning announcements by PSO, National Bank, Bank Alfalfa and Indus Motors played a catalytic role in bullish close.