Equity market gains 800 points on buying activities

Equity market gains 800 points on buying activities

KARACHI: The equity market registered an increase of 800 points on Thursday due to year end closing that requires financial institutions to manage the equity portfolios to avoid impairments.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 41,128 points as against 40,328 points showing an increase of 800 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market moved up significantly by 820 points, primarily due to year end closing that requires financial institutions to manage the equity portfolios to avoid impairments.

Buying activity was observed across the board, but focusing on Oil & Gas chain, including E&P sector stocks that showed OGDC trading near upper circuit.

Similarly, price gains were observed in Refinery and OMCs sectors.

Banking sector was no different with major performance from HBL and UBL.

Technology sector led the volumes with 33.6 million shares followed by O&GMCs (27.7 million) and Vanaspati (27.2 million).

Amogn scrips, UNITY saw trading volumes of 27.2 million, followed by WTL (21 million) and HASCOLR (17.8M).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+360 points), E&P (+140 points), O&GMCs (+54 points), Power (+44 points) and Inv Banks (+35 points).

Volumes showed slight increase from 236.2 million shares to 236.8 million shares (+0.3 percent DoD).

Average traded value also declined by 10 percent to reach US$ 51.3 million as against US$ 56.5 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, WTL, HASCOLR1, FFL and TRG, which formed 38 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively include HBL (+119 points), OGDC (+70 points), UBL (+56 points), BAHL (+51 points) and PPL (+44 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively include PAKT (-36 points), EFUG (-10 points), MUREB (-3 points), SCBPL (-2 points), and INDU (-2 points).