ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a buying rally on Monday, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index gained over 570 points.
Positive momentum prevailed throughout the day, pushing the benchmark index to an intra-day high of 116,276.42. At close, the index settled at 115,844.81, with a positive change of 0.5%.
Buying was witnessed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, chemicals, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, POL, OGDC, MCB, MEBL and UBL, traded in the green.
“The uptrend may continue, but politics will be key to guide market direction in the short term,” said Intermarket Securities in a note.
On Monday a total of 675,046,602 shares were entertained during the day as compared to 549,584,585 shares the last trading day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs37.533 billion against Rs.35.931 billion on the previous working day.
As many as 454 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 241 of them registered gains and 157 met losses, whereas the share price of 56 companies remained unchanged.
The three top trading companies were Lotte Chemical with 59,473,543 shares at Rs 23.23 per share followed by Bank Makramah with 57,800,421 shares at Rs.3.40 per share whereas WorldCall Telecom settled with 56,891,848 shares at Rs.1.87 per share.
Hoechst Pakistan Limited witnessed a maximum increase of Rs 166.92 per share closing at Rs 2,986.68 whereas Colgate-Palmolive (Pakistan) Limited was the runner-up with Rs 23.90 rise in its share price to close at Rs.1,515.49.
Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited witnessed a maximum decline of Rs.148.50 per share price.
Last week, the PSX experienced a positive trend, registering substantial gains driven primarily by fresh buying from local investors, along with support from institutional investors.
The benchmark KSE-100 index climbed by 2,024.79 points on a week-on-week basis, closing at 115,272.08 points.
On the international front, the US dollar remained strong, while Asia’s stock markets showed cautious optimism on Monday.
Investors were awaiting a series of policy announcements in the early hours of Donald Trump’s second presidency and closely monitoring expectations of an interest rate hike in Japan later in the week.
