Stock market gains 406 points on amnesty scheme launching

Stock market gains 406 points on amnesty scheme launching

KARACHI: The stock exchange gained 406 points on Wednesday owing to introduction of tax amnesty scheme by the government for undeclared assets.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 34,291 points as against 33,885 points showing an increase of 406 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market made a positive move today, courtesy of Amnesty Scheme as well as news of successful drilling at Kekra 1.

Resultantly, E&P scrips performed well and Investors in general took positive bets on Fertilizer, Cement, Banks and Steel. Cement sector topped the volumes table with 19.4 million shares, followed by Banks (14 million) and Power (11.9 million).

Investors interest in HUBC kept the price up consecutively since yesterday and similar interest was seen in KEL, which also topped the volumes. OGDC, PPL and POL nonetheless, became the star performers today.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+208 points), Power (+62 points), Fertilizer (+55 points), O&GMCs (+44 points), Pharma (+23 points), Food (-37 points) Banks (-18 points).

Volumes increased slightly from 105.7 million shares to 110.9 million shares (+5 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 4 percent to reach US$ 31.5 million as against US$ 30.3 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, MLCF, BOP, OGDC and LOTCHEM, which formed 33 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively include PPL (+94 points), POL (+52 points), OGDC (+43 points), HUBC (+42 points) and EFERT (+30 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include NESTLE (-37 points), HBL (-26 points), MCB (-13 points), DGKC (-10 points) and ICI (-6 points).