Pakistan stocks gain 319 points amid volatile trading

Pakistan stocks gain 319 points amid volatile trading

KARACHI: Pakistan stocks gained 319 points on Thursday amid volatile trading observed during the day. The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 43,523 points from previous closing on March 22, 2022 at 43,204 points, up by 319 points.

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Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that volatile session was observed today due to uptick in the auction result of Market Treasury Bills.

The cut-off yields on 3-12 months T-bills stood higher compared to the longer-tenure papers like 3-10 years Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs).

Market opened in the green zone but battled between the bulls and bears throughout the day. Main board activity remained dull.

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On the flip-side, activity continued to remain side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks. In the last trading hour, value buying was witnessed which led the index to close in the green zone.

Analysts at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities witnessed a mix trend today where the benchmark index initially opened on a negative note due to news story regarding Pakistan’s officials are having tough time to convince IMF over recently announced PM amnesty scheme.

READ MORE: Weekly Review: political unrest to keep stocks under pressure

In the first half of trading session, the investors chose to do some profit taking  due to which the KSE-100 index made an intraday low at 42,936 level (-268 points; down 0.62 per cent). However, value hunting resumed at the aforesaid level which helped market to record an intraday high at 43,570 level (+366 points; up 0.84 per cent) before settling at 43,523 level (+319 points; up 0.74 per cent) for the day.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (+73.7 points), Technology (+53.1 points), Commercial Banks (+36.2 points), and Fertilizer (+33.5 points).

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Volumes increased from 138.3 million shares to 149.8 million shares (+8.3 per cent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 12.7 per cent to reach US$ 31.0 million as against US$ 27.5 million.

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