KARACHI: The stock market ended with a gain of 60 points on Thursday amid profit booking seen on the last day of the year 2020.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 43,755 points as against previous day’s close of 43,695 points showing an increase of 60 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note on the last trading day of CY20, adding a total of 195 points during the session and closing +96 points (unadjusted).
On an annual basis, the benchmark index returned around 7 percent and highest closing since 2016.
Institutional investors resorted to mark to market activity besides booking profit on positions taken earlier to improve half year and full year financial results.
Cement sector took cue from extension of Real Estate Amnesty Scheme by the Prime Minister, which would eventually help Cement and Steel Sector listed companies.
Among scrips, PRL topped the volumes with 41.4 million shares, followed by SILK (38.5 million) and FFBL (36.7 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (+61 points), Power (+39 points), Fertilizer (+12 points), Banks (-18 points) and Insurance (-9 points).
Volumes increased from 455.9 million shares to 578.2 million shares (+27 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 5 percent to reach US$ 148.8 million as against US$ 141.8 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include PRL, SILK, FFBL, TRG and PIBTL, which formed 32 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include HUBC (+37 points), UBL (+18 points), LUCK (+16 points), MLCF (+16 points) and MCB (+15 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include BAHL (-28 points), MEBL (-18 points), NESTLE (-9 points), ENGRO (-8 points) and PSO (-7 points).