Stock market gains 320 points amid activities in cement, power sectors

Stock market gains 320 points amid activities in cement, power sectors

KARACHI: The stock market gained 320 points on Monday as activities were seen in cement and power sector, analysts said.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 37,651 points as against 37,331 points showing an increase of 320 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the benchmark index made yet another recent time high with one of the highest volumes, all courtesy of cement and power sectors.

Market opened on a positive note today with +158 points and gained a total of 410 points, closing the session +320 points. Last 10 days of the month has a scheduled meeting of SBP to decide monetary policy stance with an anticipation of further rate cut.

Cement sector continued the momentum with highest volumes on the bourse, totaling 83.2 million shares, followed by Technology (68.2 million) and Engineering (48.4 million). Among scrips, HASCOL topped the volumes with 32.5 million shares, followed by TRG (27.5 million) and MLCF (23 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Power (+72 points), Cement (+47 points), E&P (+27 points), Textile (+26 points) and Engineering (+24 points).

Volumes increased from 466 million shares to 553.8 million shares (+19 percent DoD0. Average traded value also increased by 23 percent to reach US$ 116.0 million as against US$ 94.1 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HASCOL, TRG, MLCF, FCCL and LOTCHEM, which formed 22 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include HUBC (+56 points), FCCL (+24 points), TRG (+19 points), KAPCO (+15 points) and LUCK (+14 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include ENGRO (-12 points), PAKT (-11 points), UBL (-9 points), HMB (-8 points), and NESTLE (-7 points).