Equity market surges by 1277 points on international oil price increase

Equity market surges by 1277 points on international oil price increase

KARACHI: The equity market witnessed sharp increase of 1,277 points on Thursday owing to jump in international oil prices.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 30,782 points as against 29,506 points showing an increase of 4.3 percent or 1277 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that After yesterday’s pause, Market again witnessed a huge stride of 1336 points, similar to what was observed day before yesterday.

Jump in international crude prices by approx. 10 percent believed to have given the impetus that the market saw today, which saw OGDC, PPL and POL trading at and near cap for most part of the trading session.

Institutional buying further boosted the sentiment amid the possibility of announcement of a relief package for construction industry that is likely to be made by the Premier tomorrow.

In anticipation, Construction sectors (Cement & Steel) rallied and hit upper circuits. Cement sector topped the charts again with 64 million shares, followed by O&GMCs (37.4 million) and Banks (+33.5 million).

Among scrips, HASCOL led the volumes with 29.5 million shares, followed by KEL (20.6 million) and UNITY (19 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+328 points), E&P (+258 points), Cement (+160 points), Power (+100 points) and O&GMCs (+93 points).

Volumes declined from 193.8 million shares to 311.6 million shares (+61 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 55 percent to reach US$ 62.3 million as against US$ 40.1 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HASCOL, KEL, UNITY, MLCF and BOP, which formed 32 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include OGDC (+81 points), PPL (+80 points), LUCK (+78 points), HUBC (+70 points) and HBL (+68 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively include PAKT (-11 points), COLG (-9 points), FFC (-9 points), HGFA (-5 points), and NESTLE (-1 points).