Pakistan stocks gain 223 points amid volatile trading

KARACHI: Pakistan stocks gained 223 points on Friday amid volatile trading owing to political unrest and depreciation of Pakistan Rupee (PKR).

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 45,152 points from previous day’s closing of 44,929 points, up by 223 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the index opened in the red territory due to political unrest and further PKR devaluation against dollar.

Market remained volatile throughout the day. However, rally in UBL and MCB was witnessed due to expectation of foreign selling spree in banking sector getting over.

Cement sector remained in the limelight due to decline in international coal prices. In the second session, value buying was witnessed which led the index to close in the green zone.

Analysts at Topline Securities said that KSE-100 Index opened on a negative note but soon came into positive zone as the day progressed, where the index gained to close at 45,152 level.

This positivity in market can be attributed to no confidence voting against Prime Minister on Sunday in parliament, where investors expect ambiguity to end on political front post this event.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+125.7 points), Technology (+34.1 points), Fertilizer (+31.96 points), Auto Assemblers (+28.3 points) and Textile (+14.2 points).

Volumes decreased from 415.6 million shares to 389.1 million shares (-6.4 per cent DoD). Average traded value increased by 14.8 per cent to reach US$ 60.3 million as against US$ 52.6 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TELE, TPLP, TREET, PAELR3 and GGL.