Stock market gains 341 points on buying activities

Stock market gains 341 points on buying activities

KARACHI: The stock market gained 341 points on Friday due to across the board buying activities.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 37,584 points as against 37,243 points showing an increase of 341 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the high volumes and surge in index has become the new normal for KSE-100.

Altogether, the index has gained around 9,000 so far from a low of 28,671 points in August 2019.

Since then, the index has been increasing at a break neck speed. Today was no different.

The index gained a total of 392 points and closed the session near day’s high at +368 points. Buying activity was observed almost across the board, but was mainly contributed by Banks, O&GMCs, Steel, Cement and Fertilizer sectors.

Cement sector led the volumes table with 82.9 million shares, followed by Banks (53.9 million) and Engineering (38.1 million).

Scrip wise activity shows BOP topping the chart with 36.2 million shares, followed by MLCFR1 (25 million) and DSL (20.9 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+83 points), O&GMCs (+50 points), Inv Banks (+35 points), Autos (+30 points) and Pharma (+20 points).

Volumes increased further from 336.4 million shares to 368.4 million shares (+10 percent DoD). Average traded value, on the contrary, dipped by 6 percent to reach US$ 61.6 million as against US$ 65.4 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BOP, MLCFR1, DSL, FCCL and KEL, which formed 30 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively include HBL (+29 points), DAWH (+27 points), PSO (+22 points), NBP (+21 points) and MTL (+16 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include EFERT (-9 points), POL (-8 points), MARI (-8 points), OGDC (-8 points), and FFC (-5 points).