Equity market gains 89 points in mixed trading

Equity market gains 89 points in mixed trading

KARACHI: The equity market gained 89 points on Thursday in a mixed trading activity, analysts said.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 34,978 points as against 34,889 points showing an increase of 89 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the KSE-100 index went up by 288 points during the session, which was contributed by a mix of sectors including Cements and Fertilizer sectors (which hit day’s high in early trading, but faced profit booking in later part of the session). Banking sector gained further as investors showed renewed interest post release of CPI data.

Among Cyclicals, Engineering (Steel) showed better performance contributed by MUGHAL and ASTL primarily, trading at and near upper circuits. Similar price performance was witnessed in Pharma stocks, among which SEARL and FEROZ remained prominent.

Technology sector contributed most to the traded volumes with 105.3 million shares, followed by Cement (51.7 million) and Banks (27.3 million). Among scrips, WTL topped 52.6 million shares, followed by TRG (28.6 million) and MLCF (21.1 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+58 points), Technology (+24 points), Food (+16 points), Pharma (+14 points), Power (-37 points).

Volumes increased further from 315 million shares to 383.1 million shares (+22 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 17 percent to reach US$ 74.9 million as against US$ 63.9 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, TRG, MLCF, PAEL and HASCOL, which formed 37 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include NESTLE (+20 points), MCB (+19 points), UBL (+18 points), BAHL (+18 points) and EFERT (+14 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (-31 points), FFC (-13 points), DAWH (-13 points), MEBL (-8 points), and MARI (-8 points).