Stocks make gains with support from institutional investors
The Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index closed the penultimate trading session of the week with a gain of 373 points, or 0.88 per cent.
Closing at 42,683.57 points after witnessing a day's high of 42,733 and a low of 42,171, the benchmark index saw sustained support late in the session after selling pressure at peaks earlier in the day.
KSE-100 volumes stood at 80.4 million shares, worth Rs7.71 billion while exchange volumes swelled to 217m from 113m a day earlier.
"Market opened sideways, failing to carry yesterday's momentum," noted analysts at Elixir Securities.
"However, [the market] gradually inched up on reported institutional interest primarily in financials, oils and select [KSE-100] Index names on hopes of better flows tomorrow given FTSE rebalancing [...] Moreover, domestic cherry-picking helped the market ignore prevailing domestic politics while comments by [the] Ministry of Finance on no further IMF loans in the near-term helped investors to overcome concerns on currency devaluation," they added.
Technology scrips invited the most attention, with 64.6m shares traded. Textiles and commercial banks followed with 26.4m and 24.6m shares traded, respectively.
Volumes were led by:
WorldCall Telecom: 48m shares traded (+20pc)
Azgard Nine: 22.9m shares traded (+2.17pc)
Aisha Steel Mill: 12.8m shares traded (+1.92pc)
Bank Al-Falah: 12m shares traded (+2.93pc)
Sui Southern Gas: 8.3m shares traded (2.03pc)