ISLAMABAD: Buying momentum returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index surging over 1,000 points to close above the 115,000 level.
At the end of the session, the index stood at 115,094.23 points, marking an increase of 1,009.70 points or 0.89 per cent.
Buying was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery.
Index-heavy stocks including MARI, OGDC, PPL, HUBCO, ARL, PSO, SSGC, and SNGPL settled in the green.
The buying rally was driven by positive developments on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) front said market experts.
On Thursday a total of 382,791,629 shares were entertained as compared to 299,630,187 shares the last working day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs 25.407 billion against Rs 20.262 billion on the previous trading day.
As many as 444 companies transacted their shares in the stock market,232 of them registered gains, and 156 met losses, whereas the share price of 56 companies remained unchanged.
The three top trading companies were Bank of Punjab with 48,802,683 shares at Rs 13.45 per share, followed by Barkat Frisian Agro with 24,680,233 shares at Rs 28.40 per share whereas Fauji Cement settled with 19,660,929 shares at Rs 45.29 per share.
Hoechst Pakistan Limited witnessed a maximum increase of Rs 85.30 per share closing at Rs 3,199.88 whereas PIA Holding Company Limited B was the runner-up with Rs 64.22 increase in its share price to close at Rs 928.47.
Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited witnessed a maximum decline of Rs122.40 per share price, closing at Rs 23,217.20, whereas the runner-up was Services Industries Limited with a fall of Rs 36.15 in its per share price to Rs 1,383.77.
ALSO READ: Where are Traders Heading After Selling US Stocks?
On Wednesday, the PSX closed marginally lower and settled at 114,084.54.
In a major banking development, global credit rating agency Moody’s improved Pakistan’s banking outlook from stable to positive on Wednesday.
At the global level, tech stocks led advances in Asia on Thursday, taking their cue from Wall Street’s gains after tepid inflation data allayed concerns over the state of the US economy.
US Treasury yields remained elevated after pulling further away from recent lows the day before, on escalating tit-for-tat tariff battles between the United States and trading partners.
