Equity market gains 335 points amid optimism on IMF loan program

Equity market gains 335 points amid optimism on IMF loan program

KARACHI: The equity market gained 335 points on Friday amid optimistic sentiment over IMF loan program.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 37,130 points as against 36,796 points showing an increase of +335 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market increased consecutively with another 362 points during the day and ended the session +335 points.

Optimism can clearly be seen from market participants, which emanates from likely conclusion of IMF package in the first week of May as well as PM’s visit to China.

Cement sector performed well on the news of settlement of sales quota amongst cement manufacturers on upcoming meeting coming Monday.

A host of result announcements also helped prop-up the index. BOP topped the volumes table with 20M shares, followed by PAEL (9 million) and UNITY (7 million).

Banking sector performed well with 27 million shares, which was followed by Cement Sector (23 million shares).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (+104 points), Tobacco (+38 points), Power (+34 points), Autos (+28 points) and Fertilizer (+19 points).

Volumes increased from 106.8 million shares to 146.8 million shares (+35 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 23 percent to reach US$ 36.8 million as against US$ 29.8 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BOP, PAEL, UNITY, TRG and FCCL, which formed 35 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively include LUCK (+51 points), PAKT (+32 points), DAWH (+23 points), DGKC (+16 points), and FCCL (+16 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include MCB (-16 points), BAHL (-15 points), UBL (-9 points), IGIHL (-6 points) and FFC (-5 points).