KARACHI: Pakistan stocks gained 200 points on Monday owing to positive sentiments prevailed over reconstitution of exploring Reko Diq gold deposits.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 43,230 points as against last Friday’s closing of 43,030 points showing an increase of 200 points.
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Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the index stayed in the green zone today as Current Account Deficit (CAD) shrinks 78 per cent in February 2022.
Moreover, the federal government and Balochistan government have signed a new agreement with Barrick Gold Corporation of Canada for extraction of gold and copper reserves from Reko Diq with an investment of $10 billion.
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In E&P sector, OGDC and PPL stayed in the limelight as Federal Government’s 25 percent shareholding will be divided equally amongst three state-owned-entities (SOEs) – Oil & Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and Government Holdings Pakistan Limited (GHPL).
Main board activity remained dull. On the flip-side, activity continued to remain side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks.
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Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (+58.6 points), Cement (+37.8 points), E&P (+24.4 points), Banks (+21.0 points) and Inv Banks (+17.2 points).
Volumes decreased from 180.4 million shares to 124.9 million shares (-30.8 per cent DoD). Traded value also decreased by 38.4 per cent to reach US$ 21.7 million as against US$ 35.3 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include SMBL, HUMNL, WTL, TREET and EFERT.
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