KARACHI: The equity market made gains on Monday amid selling was sent in shares of banking sector, analysts said.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 40,420 points as against 40.265 points showing an increase of 155 points (+0.4 percent day-on-day).
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market stood firm above 40,000, which is considered a key level before the index can either nose-dive or attain new highs in recent times.
They said that Steel, Cement, Banks and Chemical sector performed positive with slight price growth.
High volumes were observed in PIAA, which garnered around 20 million volume on the back of restructuring efforts.
Banking sector followed suit and realized volume of 14 million topped by BOP, HBL and UBL among the noteworthy ones.
Nonetheless, selling pressure was visible in banking sector, whereby UBL saw profit taking.
E&P sector remained on the back burner and profit taking was witnessed here as well.
Among flat steel, ISL showed improvement in both price and volume, due to better than anticipated results, announced on Friday.
Sectors contributing to the performance include O&GMCs (37 points), Autos (23 points), Refinery (20 points), Pharma (18 points), Cement (17 points), E&P (-15 points) and Sugar (-2 points).
Volumes declined from 156mn shares to 126 million shares (-19 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 21 percent to reach $36.9 million as against $46.6 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include PIAA, TRG, FFL, UNITY and PIBTL, which formed 31 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include PSO (+21 points), MCB (+13 points), ENGRO (+13 points), SEARL (+13 points), and HBL (+10 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively include OGDC (-9 points), FFC (-7 points), POL (-5 points), JLICL (-5 points) and MARI (-5 points).
