KARACHI: The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) gained 35 points on Thursday to close at 33,875 points as against previous day’s 33,840 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that KSE-100 index has been on a losing streak with continuous slide in both volume and index level.
Yesterday, the volumes reached an 8-yr low of 40 million, and today marked yet another low of 39.5 million shares. Cement sector led the volumes table with 5.4 million, followed by Engineering (5.1 million) and Chemical (3.7 million).
Scrip wise activity shows DSL ranking top again with 4.4 million, followed by MLCF (2.7 million) and HUBC (2.2 million).
Recent ouster of HUBC from Islamic indices is followed by an increase in trading volumes of HUBC. Market on close showed improvement in points table that resulted in index closing with +35 points.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+42 points), Fertilizer (+15 points), O&GMC (+10 points), E&P (+9 points), Sugar (+2ts).
Volumes decreased by 3 percent DoD to reach 39.5 million as against 40.6 million. Average traded value also decreased by 12.2 percent to reach US$ 9.1 million as against US$ 10.3 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include DSL, MLCF, HUBC, LOTCHEM and TPL, which formed 34 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include HBL (+33 points), ENGRO (+16 points), UBL (+14 points), POL (+9 points) and MCB (+8 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively include MARI (-7 points), NATF (-5 points), MEBL (-5 points), INDU (-4 points) and HMB (-4 points).