KARACHI: The stock market gained 104 points on Wednesday amid profit booking in scripts of many sectors.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 37,805 points as against 37,700 points showing an increase of 104 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded in a similar fashion as yesterday, whereby cement, fertilizer, banks saw profit booking / selling pressure, which was counterweighed by index heavy weights HUBC, ENGRO.
Today MCB, HBL and Cement sector stocks (particularly LUCK) saved the day. ECC’s approval of Funds for construction sector gave Cement sector the reason to trade.
International crude oil prices increased over the day, which helped E&P stocks staged recovery. Cement sector topped the volumes with 59.8 million shares, followed by O&GMCs (46.6 million) and Technology (40.2 million).
Among scrips, HASCOL realized trading volumes of 21.2 million, followed by UNITY (20 million) and AGL (19.2 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (+79 points), Autos (+40 points), O&GMCs (+26 points), E&P (+20 points), Power (-37 points), Fertilizer (-25 points) and Insurance (-15 points).
Volumes declined from 457.2 million shares to 405.5 million shares (-11 percent DoD). Average trade value also declined by 9 percent to reach US$ 106.2 million as against US$ 116.5 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HASCOL, UNITY, AGL, FCCL and MLCF, which formed 24 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include LUCK (+71 points), MTL (+28 points), PSO (+18 points), MCB (+16 points) and HBL (+14 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (-35 points), UBL (-34 points), ENGRO (-16 points), TRG (-11 points), and EFUG (-8 points).
