KARACHI: The equity market gained 72 points on Thursday amid range bound trading activity during the day.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 43,065 points as against 42,993 points showing an increase of 72 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market maintained the range bound activity, witnessed for the past 2 sessions, where the index moves both directions and in the end maintains 43,000 level.
Political uncertainty has so far kept the otherwise bright outlook muddled.
Banking sector scrips also held on to price levels, whereas Index heavy weights such as ENGRO, POL, OGDC, HBL, PSO remained under slight pressure.
In general, Cement and Textile sector scrips performed well and price gains were observed, although a news article quoted additional cost burden being added by the government on the textile sector.
Banking sector led the volumes with 81.1 million shares, contributed mainly by BOP (60.3 million), followed by Cement (33.9 million) and Technology (29.4 million).
Among scrips, WTL (11.7 million) and TRG (9.1 million) followed BOP.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+63 points), Textile (+21 points), Cement (+13 points), E&P (-18 points), Chemical (-16 points), Inv Banks (-16 points).
Volumes increased from 171.3 million shares to 229.9 million shares (+34 percent DoD). Average traded value increased by merely 7 percent to reach US$ 42.3 million as against US$ 39.6 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BOP, WTL, TRG, MLCF and POWER, which formed 42 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include FFC (+17 points), MEBL (+17 points), MCB (+17 points), BOP (+16 points) and HMB (+15 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include DAWH (-17 points), COLG (-16 points), OGDC (-15 points), ENGRO (-12 points), and POL (-12 points).
