Pakistan stocks gain 1,061 points to celebrate free float exchange rate

KARACHI: Pakistan stocks Thursday gained 1,061 points to celebrate the much needed free float of exchange rate.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) increased to 40,846 points from previous day’s closing of 39,785 points, showing a gain of 1,061 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that major confidence booster for the investors today proved to be the free float of exchange rate determined by the market as volumes soared up across the board.

The exchange rate recorded historic low of rupee to end at PKR 255.43 to the dollar from previous day’s close of PKR 230.89 in interbank foreign exchange market. The local currency also witnessed the highest single day fall of Rs24.54 against the dollar.

The analysts said that the market witnessed another bull run was recorded at the PSX today.

The market resumed the trading session on a positive note and processed to make an intraday high of 1209.79 points after the government took positive measures to get incline with the IMF prerequisites before the resumption of talks for the revival of the IMF Program.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+353.9 points), Fertilizer (+230.1 points), Cement (+100.4 points), Misc. (+81.4 points), and Power (+46.7 points).

Volumes increased from 269.5 million shares to 364.1 million shares (+35.1 per cent DoD). The average traded value also increased by 23.8 per cent to USD 56.7 million as against USD 45.8 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are CNERGY, TPLP, WTL, DGKC and MLCF.