KARACHI: The stock market gained 1,081 points on Thursday owing to positive outcome of tax amendment ordinance promulgated a day earlier.
The benchmark KSE-100 of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 42,481 points as against 41,400 points showing an increase of 1081 points.
The sentiments of the market was positive on tax incentives granted to foreign investors in domestic debt securities.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that second trading day of 2020 took the index to an even higher number with an increase of 1144 points and closing the session 1081 points.
Reasons that contributed to the performance of index were rumour of downward adjustment in NSS rates by a significant margin and buying activity from Banks and Foreign Fund, in addition to the recent release of a host of high index targets from various brokerage houses.
Buying activity was mainly observed in Banks, E&P and Cement Sectors.
Power sector led the volumes with 58.8 million shares, followed by Banks (58.1 million) and Cement (36.3 million).
Among scrips, KEL traded 46.8 million shares, followed by BOP (27.7 million) and FFL (21.4 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+332 points), E&P (+133 points), Power (+107 points), Cement (+95 points) and Fertilizer (+91 points).
Volumes increased from 330.7 million shares to 412.4 million shares (+24 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 111 percent to reach US$ 110.2 million as against US$ 52.1 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, BOP, FFL, UNITY and PAEL, which formed 33 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include HUBC (+101 points), HBL (+85 points), ENGRO (+83 points), UBL (+73 points) and PPL (+67 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include KTML (-2 points), SHEL (-1 points), GSKCH (-1 points), POL (-1 points), and FHAM (-1 points).
