KARACHI: Pakistan stock made slight gain on Thursday amid concerns of high oil prices. The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 44,526 points as against previous day’s closing of 44,514 points showing an increase of 12 points.
READ MORE: Stocks shed 289 points on high global commodity prices
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened under pressure as inflationary concerns arise due to higher fuel prices and overheated commodities cycle.
Cement sector stayed in the red zone due to mounting international coal prices.
READ MORE: Stocks stay bullish on major relief package
Moreover, trade deficit widened by 82.2 percent during the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year 2021-22 and reached $31.959 billion compared to $17.535 billion during the same period of 2020-2021.
Main board activity remained dull. In the last trading hour, value buying was observed mainly in the E&P sector.
READ MORE: Stocks gain 477 points amid negative sentiments
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+131.6 points), Power (+21.7 points), Fertilizer (+13.5 points), Inv Banks (9.1 points) and Automobile Assembler (+4.3 points).
Volumes decreased from 235.0 million shares to 188.7 million shares (-19.7 per cent DoD). Traded value also decreased by 21.2 per cent to reach US$ 41.4 million as against US$ 52.6 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, OGDC, FLYNGR1, FCCL and KEL.
READ MORE: Pakistan Stocks gain 154 points, follow global markets
