ISLAMABAD: The buying rally continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 Index rose by more than 8,00 points on Friday.
Positive momentum prevailed throughout the day, pushing the benchmark index to an intra-day high of 115,779.05. At close, the index settled at 114,880.48 with an increase of 842.69 points or a positive change of 0.74%.
Buying was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and refinery sectors. Index-heavy stocks including HUBCO, PSO, SHEL, SNGP, MARI, OGDC, PPL, HBL, MEBL, and NBP traded in the green.
“Market may draw optimism from the government being able to pass legislation on electronic crimes in parliament,” said Intermarket Securities in a statement on Friday.
The brokerage house said that market participants are eyeing a 100 basis points cut in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.
On Friday a total of 632,039,226 shares were entertained at the PSX during the day as compared to 675,540,473 shares the last working day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs 37.800 billion against Rs 30.469 billion on the previous trading day.
As many as 445 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 226 of them registered gains, and 167 met losses, whereas the share price of 52 companies remained unchanged.
The three top trading companies were Cnergyico PK with 61,454,571 shares at Rs 7.71 per share followed by Sui South Gas with 57,677,562 shares at Rs 43.92 per share whereas WorldCall Telecom settled with 33,767,457 shares at Rs 1.79 per share.
Sapphire Textile Mills Limited witnessed a maximum increase of Rs 72.18 per share closing at Rs 1,220.00 whereas Pakistan Services Limited was the runner-up with Rs 24.71 rise in its share price to close at Rs.928.98.
Hoechst Pakistan Limited witnessed a maximum decline of Rs.199.33 per share price, closing at Rs 3,092.46, whereas the runner-up was Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited with a drop of Rs 90.01 in its per share price to Rs.21,599.99.
On Thursday, positivity returned to the stock market with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing with a gain of nearly 600 points.
Global shares rose on Friday, supported by the potential for lower U.S. interest rates and optimism over a U.S.-China trade agreement following remarks from President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the yen stabilised ahead of an anticipated rate hike from the Bank of Japan.