KARACHI: Pakistani stocks showed an upward trend following the announcement of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who rejected any possibility to place a complete lockdown in Pakistan. Bank, cement and energy sectors also supported the KSE-100 index.
The Karachi share Index (KSE-100) went up by 653.49 points (1.62 per cent) at 41,031.03 against the previous closing of 40,377.54 points.
Trading volume slightly jumped to 389.1 million shares today as compared to 241.9 million traded in the previous session, according to PSX website data. The daily traded value jumped to Rs 16.026 billion from Rs 9.831 billion in the previous session, the data said.
According to an analyst at AKD brokerage house, Prime Minister Imran Khan has ruled out any complete lockdown despite surging coronavirus cases, which is around 140 days high in Pakistan. This news from Islamabad supported the market throughout the day, he added.
Another contributing factor in the upward trend was the improvement in activities of cement sector as the market experts predict 10-12% growth annually. The demand of the cement is improving day by day and the government has announced a number of constructions projects. While the energy sector is supported by strong international oil prices.The banking sector also remained strong throughout the day, the analyst said.
The analyst also claimed that the future contracts were the main reason behind this surge as every last two days of the month; the investors make a rollover of their stocks and investments.
The overall market traded 621 million shares where UNITY recorded the highest volumes for the day with 50 million shares traded followed by TRG (33 million shares traded) and MLCF (30 million shares). DAWH contributed the most to the index decline (down 0.52%) while LUCK provided the biggest boost (up 2.02%) to the benchmark.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, TRG, MLCF, HUMNL and PIBTL, which formed 38% of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include LUCK (+38pts), TRG (+32pts), PPL (+32pts), HUBC (+32pts) and MLCF (+30pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include DAWH (-5pts), SCBPL (-3pts), PMPK (-2pts), UBL (-2pts) and ICI (-2pts).
