KARACHI: The stock market gained 668 points on Monday as sentiments were remained positive on rate cut and disbursement of IMF loan program.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 33,500 points as against 32,832 points showing an increase of +668 points.
Analysts at Topline Securities said that cut in policy rate by 200 basis points to 9 percent and approval by IMF Executive Board to disburse US$1.386 billion through Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) to Pakistan continue to garner investor interest in the market.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued the ascend today after posting the historical gains on Friday, when the market witnessed halt due to 5 percent cap on index.
Market went up by 1026 points during the session and saw profit booking earlier in the session that brought the gains below +300 points.
Cement sector again traded mostly on upper circuit and realized high trading volumes. Oil & Gas stocks, with the exception of PSO, saw a dip in prices, primarily on the back of international crude prices.
WTI May contract saw a downtrend in price and declined to US$13.27/bbl post closure of PSX market. Banking sector stocks also managed to post gains over last closing.
Cement sector contributed the most to the trading volumes by realizing 115.8 million shares, followed by Technology (33.4 million) and O&GMCs (32 million).
Among scrips, MLCF topped the volumes with 39.6 million shares, followed by FCCL (35.5 million) and HASCOL (23 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (+220 points), Cement (+183 points), Banks (+97 points), O&GMCs (+43 points) and Power (+40 points).
Volumes increased significantly from 302.4 million shares to 399.9 million shares (+32 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 100 percent to reach US$ 106.2 million as against US$ 52.6 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include MLCF, FCCL, HASCOL, UNITY and KEL, which formed 32 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include ENGRO (+155 points), LUCK (+91 points), FFC (+70 points), HUBC (+46 points) and HBL (+33 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include PAKT (-16 points), EFERT (-12 points), PPL (-11 points), PMPK (-11 points), and KAPCO (-7 points).
