KARACHI: The stock market gained 29 points on Friday as the market witnessed losses of 319 points which was offset by the better results of Habib Bank Limited.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 37,608 points as against 37,578 points showing an increase of 29 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a negative note with -16 points and in total lost 319 points during the session due to selling pressure across the board.
Second session saw a rebound in index, courtesy of HBL results, which were above street estimates.
This turned the tide for the whole banking sector, resulting in HBL trading at upper circuit followed by UBL. Banking sector realized trading volumes of 33.3 million shares, followed by Power (24.2 million) and Cement (24.1 million).
Among scrips, UNITY topped the volumes with 21.6 million shares, followed by KEL (16.8 million) and FFBL (15.8 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+217 points), Inv Banks (+21 points), E&P (-55 points), Cement (-48 points), Power (-38 points), O&GMCs (-27 points).
Volumes declined further from 379.3 million shares to 266.5 million shares (-30 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 24 percent to reach US$ 63.9 million as against US$ 84.2 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, KEL, FFBL, HASCOL and TRG, which formed 31 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include HBL (+82 points), UBL (+43 points), MCB (+25 points), BAFL (+22 points) and DAWH (+22 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (-29 points), LUCK (-26 points), OGDC (-21 points), PPL (-13 points), and POL (-11 points).
