KARACHI: The bulls and bears clashed on Monday at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the KSE-100 index trading on both sides of the fence but ending the day with a 382-point gain.
Cement (+120.1 points), commercial banks (+50.4 points), car assembler (+48 points), exploration and production (+40.3 points), and pharmaceuticals (+20.9 points) were among the sectors that contributed to the performance.
The KSE-100 index rose 382.41 points, or 0.88 percent, to 43,933.56 points at the closing.
The benchmark KSE-100 index remained in the negative throughout the first trading hour, according to Arif Habib Limited, owing to political turmoil and more rupee depreciation against the US dollar.
“The cement industry remained in the spotlight owing to a further Rs15 per bag price hike in the south, save for Karachi,” the brokerage company said, adding that mainboard activity remained subdued.
On the other hand, the market’s activity remained sideways as heavy volumes in third-tier equities flooded the market. Value purchasing was seen in the final trading hour, causing the index to finish in the green.
During the session, 328 businesses’ shares were exchanged. 216 scrips finished in the green, 87 in the red, and 25 stayed unchanged at the end of a trade.
Overall trading volumes fell to 132.63 million shares, down from 161.93 million on Friday. During the day, Rs4.8 billion worth of shares were exchanged.
With 13.11 million shares traded, Telecard Limited was the most active, earning Rs0.72 to settle at Rs11.17. WorldCall came in second with 6.66 million shares traded, up Rs0.01 to Rs1.57, while K-Electric came in third with 6.60 million shares traded, up Rs0.11 to Rs3.02.
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