KARACHI: On Thursday, the Pakistan stock market maintained its bullish trend as KSE-100 index remained over 45,000 mark. The main reason behind this was the positive news related to exports, ongoing rally in oil sector following higher prices in international market and expectations of dividend payouts in the banking sector.
The Karachi Share Index (KSE-100) gained 191.12 points (0.42 per cent) after closing at 45,344.54 points against the previous closing of 45,153.42 points. The market went up to 45,623.72 points during intra-day trading, while recorded as low as 45,153.42 points.
The market opened on a bullish note on the back of the heavyweight banks with healthy dividend expectations amongst investors, while oil & gas sector tracking the sustained strength in current rise in international oil prices. However, it was unable to sustain momentum at higher levels as broad profit taking by local institutions pared some intraday gains as high as 1.02% around noon that primarily dragged down by the oil marketing companies and auto sectors.
Trading volume declined to 641.43 million shares today as compared to 664.53 million traded in the previous session, according to PSX website data. The daily traded value increased to Rs 25.52 billion from Rs 24.69 billion in the previous session, the data said.
Prime Minister, Imran Khan shared the results of the regional export trends, stating that compared to Pakistan’s exports, the exports of both Bangladesh and India for the year November/December 2020 had shown negative growth. The Prime Minister congratulated the country’s exporters and the Ministry of Commerce for the achievement.
In this backdrop, the benchmark KSE-100 Index managed to settle at 45,000 points levels driven by bank and cement sector. In term of volumes, the overall market traded 765 million shares down 6%, where BYCO recorded the highest volumes for the day with 95 million shares traded followed by KAPCO with 32 million shares traded and PAEL 20 million shares traded today. PSO contributed the most to the index decline with 3.36% fall while UBL provided the biggest boost to the benchmark Index with 6.48% advance.
The share price of Indus Dyeing increased by Rs 40 to Rs 577 while Premium Textile gained Rs 19.12 to Rs 274.12. Similarly, Atlas Honda Limited lost Rs 20 today to close at Rs 500 while Gillette Pakistan lost Rs 16.81 to close at Rs 410.05.
