Share market gains 177 points on unchanged policy rate

Share market gains 177 points on unchanged policy rate

KARACHI: The share market gained 177 points on Friday on anticipation of unchanged monetary policy rate, analysts said.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 44,901 points as against previous day’s closing of 44,724 points, showing an increase of 177 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market followed the trend shown yesterday by regressing 331 points in the first session, however, bounced back strongly and added a total increase of 448 points. The index closed +177 points.

Key monetary policy decision taken by the SBP today remained unchanged, which was announced after the end of session.

Refinery, Cement, Steel, O&GMCs performed in the later part of the session. Among scrips, BYCO led the table with 101.3 million shares, followed by KEL (38.2 million) and TRG (30.6 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Power (+49 points), Technology (+42 points), O&GMCs (+42 points), Refinery (+27 points) and Pharma (+22 points).

Volumes declined from 554 million shares to 484.6 million shares (-13 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 9 percent to reach US$ 140.0 million as against US$ 152.8 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BYCO, KEL, TRG, PRL and UNITY, which formed 45 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include HBL (+60 points), PSO (+31 points), TRG (+25 points), HUBC (+22 points) and SYS (+17 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include OGDC (-27 points), UBL (-24 points), INDU (-19 points), FFC (-16 points) and BAHL (-14 points).