KARACHI: Bulls returned to the trading floor to record the third-largest single-day gain on Wednesday a day after the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed its highest ever day-on-day points decline, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 1,692.65 points (+2.86 percent) to close at 60,863.62 points.
The market opened on a negative note and shed over 400 points at the start. It switched between the red and green territories during the first hour trading; however, later the bulls controlled the market.
According to experts, the KSE-100 bounced back from technical support levels. They said that the high-leverage issue also appeared to be over. They were of the view that there will be nervous days as elections approach, but it is encouraging to see the market is forming a base after its recent sharp decline.
They said the KSE-100 Index had gained faster than what fundamentals dictated so a ‘correction’ was expected. A lot depends on foreign exchange inflows and whether Pakistan can attract investment in its state-owned companies, and if it can resolve power sector woes,they further said, adding without these investment flows, the PSX will continue to see a volatile ride.
Across-the-board buying was witnessed as index-heavy sectors including automobile assemblers, chemical, commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas marketing companies, oil and gas exploration companies, property and refineries traded in the green.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 2,251.39 points, showing an intraday high of 61,009.87 points and an intraday low of 58,758.48 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 965.86 points (+2.37 percent) to close at 40,684.62 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 777.77 points (+2.62 percent) to close at 29,666.38 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 2.16 million shares to 394.32 million shares against 396.48 million traded in the previous session. Similarly, the overall market volumes decreased by 1.5 million shares to 669.36 million shares against 670.86 million shares traded a session earlier.- TLTP