ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) observed a bullish trend on Wednesday with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 450 points amid the investors’ confidence in the market.
The market started the session on a positive note, hitting an intraday high of 139,018.88.
However, selling pressure was observed in the latter part of the session amid unconfirmed reports that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would keep the policy rate unchanged, pushing the index to an intra-day low of 137,658.81.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 138,412.25 level, showing an increase of 447.44 points or 0.32%.
In a key development, the SBP kept its policy rate unchanged at 11%. “The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 11% in its meeting today,” the MPC said in a statement.
On Wednesday, a total of 425,836,625 shares were traded as compared to 606,334,880 shares on the last working day, whereas the price of shares stood at PKR 24.999 billion against PKR 32.685 billion on the previous trading day.
As many as 476 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 152 of them recorded gains and 290 met losses, whereas the share price of 34 companies remained unchanged.
The three top trading companies were Bank of Punjab with 24,809,434 shares at PKR 13.72 per share, Cres Star Ins with 20,904,522 shares at PKR 4.34 per share and Maple Leaf with 14,501,544 shares at PKR 79.62 per share.
Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited witnessed a maximum increase of PKR 399.61 per share price, closing at PKR 33,020.02, whereas the PIA Holding Company LimitedB was the runner-up with a PKR 141.57 rise in its per share price to PKR 31,299.00.
SS Oil Mills Limited witnessed a maximum decline of PKR 87.90 per share, closing at PKR 791.08, followed by Nestle Pakistan Limited with a drop of PKR 78.52 in its share price to close at PKR 7,611.32.
On Tuesday, the PSX turned bearish, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding over 1400 points as investors engaged in profit-taking.
