Share market gains 176 points amid gathering of opposition parties

Share market gains 176 points amid gathering of opposition parties

KARACHI: The share market witnessed an increase of 176 points on Monday amid gathering of combined opposition in financial hub of the country.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 40,340 points as against 40,164 points showing an increase of 176 points.

Market discounted the anticipated negative impact of the demonstration and gathering conducted by the combined Opposition parties against the incumbent government.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that investor sentiment was already dampened at the close of session last week and it was anticipated to further deteriorate post allegations made by PML N leader on the military establishment.

Contrary to general expectation, the index sided with the positive expectation on the upcoming quarterly results that helped index trade green for most part of the session.

By the end of the ongoing week, FATF plenary session is also scheduled to be announced where Pakistan may get relief from Enhanced Follow-up List.

Fertilizer off-take numbers helped the listed Fertilizer stocks to post gains especially EFERT and ENGRO. Post announcement of its financial results last Friday, HBL gained further however, profit booking brought the stock price slightly lower from LDCP.

E&P sector also contributed positively to the index with earnings of 4 listed E&P companies due to be announced in the coming days.

Among scrips, UNITY topped the volumes with 53.6 million shares, followed by PIBTL (36.6 million) and FFL (26.7 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (+87 points), E&P (+31 points), O&GMCs (+19 points), Transport (+15 points) and Vanaspati (+14 points).

Volumes increased from 254.2 million shares to 319.6 million shares (+25 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 3 percent to reach US$ 49.0 million as against US$ 47.6 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, PIBTL, FFL, KOSM and HASCOL, which formed 51 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include ENGRO (+62 points), EFERT (+23 points), MARI (+20 points), MEBL (+16 points) and PIBTL (+15 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-13 points), MCB (-12 points), POL (-5 points), PAKT (-5 points) and NBP (-5 points).