ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued its bullish momentum on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index surging to a record high of 119,962 points.
At close, the benchmark index gained 1,425.39 points, or 1.2%, compared to the previous day’s close, buoyed by renewed investor confidence and easing regional tensions.
The buying momentum was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including NRL, HUBCO, PSO, SNGPL, MARI, OGDC, PPL, HBL, NBP, and UBL, traded in the green.
In a major development, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday said that it received the second tranche of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 760 million, equivalent to $1.02 billion, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
On Thursday, a total of 698,965,992 shares were traded as compared to 609,063,142 shares the previous trading day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs39.089 billion against Rs41.913 billion on the last working day.
As many as 458 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 312 of them recorded gains and 107 met losses, whereas the share price of 39 companies remained unchanged.
The three top trading companies were Pakistan Refinery with 50,818,876 shares at Rs 33.82 per share, followed by Cnergyico PK with 47,570,881 shares at Rs 7.85 per share, whereas K-Electric Ltd settled with 40,246,546 shares at Rs 4.45 per share.
PIA Holding Company Limited witnessed a maximum increase of Rs 1,029.56 per share, closing at Rs 11,325.15, whereas Rafhan Maize Products Company Limited was the runner-up with a Rs 209.99 increase in its share price to close at Rs 9,201.27.
Hoechst Pakistan Limited witnessed a maximum decline of Rs 104.90 per share price, closing at Rs 3,155.10, whereas the runner-up was Bata Pakistan Limited with a drop of Rs 46.18 in its per share price to Rs 1,550.00.
On Wednesday, the PSX observed a volatile trading day, driven by strategic profit-taking. The benchmark KSE-100 Index lost 39.36 points, or 0.03%, to close at 118,536 points.
