KARACHI: The stock market gained 488 points on Wednesday owing to positive talks on conditions of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 30,954 points as against 30,467 points showing an increase of 488 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the index fared well on the first day of the short trading week after a long weekend.
Positive expectations from ongoing FATF meeting in Bangkok and relatively higher international crude prices kept the investors’ interest alive.
OGDC and PPL led the index by hitting upper circuit and gaining significant volumes, however, both scrips closed below upper circuit.
The index also drew support from Banking sector, which saw HBL hitting upper circuit and other scrips trading mostly in green.
Cement, Steel, O&GMCs mostly played on the negative side. Most volume was observed in Cement sector that saw 18.1M shares, followed by E&P (12.2 million) and Technology (11.1 million). Among scrips, MLCF led the volumes table with 11.5 million shares followed by OGDC (8.8 million) and WTL (6.7 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+207 points), E&P (+163 points), Fertilizer (+81 points), Power (+67 points), Cement (-33 points) and Food (-17 points).
Volumes increased from 48.2mn shares to 99.6mn shares (+107 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 103 percent to reach US$ 31.6 million as against US$ 15.5 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include MLCF, OGDC, WTL, EFERT and HUBC, which formed 37 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include HBL (+87 points), OGDC (+77 points), PPL (+68 points), HUBC (+65 points) and MCB (+46 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include LUCK (-11 points), NESTLE (-9 points), FCCL (-8 points), DGKC (-7 points), and MUREB (-6 points).
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