Stock market gains 91 points amid selling pressure

Stock market gains 91 points amid selling pressure

KARACHI: The stock market gained 91 points on Friday amid selling pressure witnessed in the market.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 40,732 points as against 40,641 points showing an increase of 91 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note, closed the first session +176 points and went as high as +347 points.

MoC faced selling pressure, bringing the index down and closing +91 points. Sectors performing E&P and O&GMCs.

Selling pressure, on the other hand was largely witnessed in Banking sector, which have so far seen massive rally and faced profit booking.

Cement sector also saw selling pressure. Cement sector led the volumes table with 84.8 million shares, followed by Vanaspati (53.5 million) and Technology (35.2 million).

Among scrips, UNITY saw volumes of 53.5 million shares followed by FCCL (31.9 million) and MLCF (18.6 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+64 points), Food (+30 points), Insurance (+21 points), Fertilizer (+23 points) and Chemical (+15 points).

Volumes declined from 507.9 million shares to 416.1 million shares (-18 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 25 percent to reach US$ 97.7 million as against US$ 129.8 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, FCCL, MLCF, FFL and MLCFR1, which formed 32 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively include PPL (+34 points), BAHL (+30 points), HUBC (+26 points), EFERT (+23 points) and OGDC (+23 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include PSO (-27 points), HBL (-21 points), SEARL (-15 points), KAPCO (-14 points), and LUCK (-14 points).