ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued its positive momentum on Friday, reaching a new milestone on the last day of the business week, as the benchmark 100 Index crossed the historic 101,000- points for the first time.
At the close of trading, the 100 Index surged by 1,274 points, settling at 101,357 points. During the session, the index witnessed an intraday increase of over 1,400 points before closing at this record high.
The stock market maintained a bullish trend throughout the day, showing investors’ confidence. The investors have shown interest in sectors including commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refineries.
Over total of 915,509,804 shares were traded at the PSX during the day as compared to 1,164,794,139 shares the previous trading day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs 35.978 billion against Rs.39.776 billion on the last trading day.
As many as 454 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 265 of them registered gains and 137 met losses, whereas the share price of 52 companies remained unchanged.
The three top trading companies were Bank of Punjab with 95,056,818 shares at Rs 9.20 per share followed by K-Electric Limited with 55,535,090 shares at Rs 5.58 per share whereas Sui South Gas settled with 44,802,561 shares at Rs.28.30 per share.
Services Industries Limited recorded a maximum increase of Rs.112.67 per share price, closing at Rs 1,349.36, whereas Rafhan Maize Products Company Limited was the runner-up with Rs 114.86 rise in its per share price to Rs 7,992.86.
Excide Pakistan Limited witnessed a maximum decline of Rs 32.09 per share closing at Rs 839.22 followed by Nestle Pakistan Limited with a decrease of Rs 13.20 to close at Rs 6,570.67.
Experts say a combination of exchange rate stability, a $7-billion agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), improvement in index-heavy sector’s earnings, and a general mood for stocks after monetary easing have been just a few factors behind the PSX phenomenal rise.
