KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended gains for the third session in a row on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index surging by 262.30 points (+0.57 percent) to close at 46,407.26 points.
The market opened on a sharp negative note amid profit-taking as the KSE-100 Index gained 2,358 points in previous two sessions. The profit-taking kept the market in the red zone for more than half of the session; however, it recovered considerably before closing.
Besides political stability, the other factor that helped the indices make gains was the third consecutive recovery of rupee against the US dollar. The dollar slipped from Rs182.93 in the interbank market to Rs182.02 during the day while the rupee The rupee has recovered Rs6.16 (+3.27 percent) against the dollar during the last three sessions. Overall, the benchmark index has gained 2,620 points in the last three sessions.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 562.8 points, showing an intraday high of 46,459.26 and a low of 45,896.46 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 116.48 points (+0.37 percent) to close at 31,449.52 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 90.17 points (+0.4 percent) to close at 22,766.79 points.
A total of 365 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 169 closed up, shares of 180 closed down while shares of 16 companies remained unchanged. Out of 95 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 57 closed up, 35 closed down and three remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 64.07 million to 493.60 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 42.11 million to 186.75 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 9,029 to 143,374, the value traded increased by Rs0.49 billion to Rs13.86 billion and the overall market capitalisation increased by Rs27.69 billion.
Among scrips, WTL topped the volumes with 62.04 million shares, followed by TELE (32.65 million) and FLYING (30.86 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included WTL, TELE, FLYING, CNERGY, and UNITY, which formed over 37 percent of total volumes.
In terms of rupee, NESTLE remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs64.06 (+1.17 percent) per share, closing at Rs5,555. The runner-up was SFL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs61.35 (+7.46 percent) to Rs883.99. BATA remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs84.39 (-3.4 percent) per share, closing at Rs2,400, followed by COLG, the share price of which declined by Rs23 (-0.98 percent) to close at Rs2,320 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards the north were technology & communication (97 points), cement (56 points), commercial banks (52 points), engineering (25 points) and refinery (22 points). The most points added to the index were by TRG (78 points), MEBL (35 points), MLCF (21 points), AVN (19 points) and UNITY (17 points).
The sectors taking the index towards the south were oil & gas exploration companies (31 points), oil & gas marketing companies (12 points), power generation & distribution (8 points), real estate investment trust (3 points) and automobile parts & accessories (2 points). The most points taken off the index were by MARI and PSO (11 points each), MCB (9 points), OGDC (7 points) and PPL (6 points). – TLTP