Bulls return to PSX, KSE-100 Index crosses 40,000 mark

After days of the bearish trend, bulls finally returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), as the benchmark KSE-100 Index rose over 1,300 points on Tuesday, crossing the 40,000 point mark barrier on the eve of US elections.

At close, the KSE-100 Index rebound sharply from yesterday and stood at 40,480.88 points showing a positive change of 1368.70 points and a percent change of 3.5 percent. The volume of 228,722,232 was traded of value Rs 10,192,965,331.

The development comes after inflation trends for the month of October, the Consumer Price Index-based inflation of October 2020 increased by 1.70 percent over September 2020 and increased by 8.91 percent over the corresponding month of the last year i.e. October 2019 as a result of an increase in food items including sugar, pulses, chicken, and wheat flour.

The CPI inflation general, increased by 8.9 percent on a year-on-year basis in October 2020 as compared to an increase of nine percent in the previous month, and 11 percent in October 2019.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 42,547,000 shares gaining Rs 0.87 to a share value at close of Rs 24.14 followed by Power Cement Limited that gained Rs 0.93 and was traded at Rs 10.21 with 35,638,500 shares traded. Hascol Limited was third on the list with 29,480,569 shares traded at a price of Rs 14.83 rising by Rs1.03.

On the international front, the Asian markets got off to a strong start on Tuesday, with investors buoyed by strong factory output data from major economies, while the dollar and gold held ground on political uncertainty ahead of U.S. elections.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 1pc, up for the second straight day.

Whereas, oil prices also slipped on Tuesday as worries about soaring COVID-19 cases, rapidly rising Libyan supply and U.S election jitters outweighed growing hopes that major producers would hold back on planned production increases.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slipped 6 cents, or 0.2%, to $36.75 a barrel at 0159 GMT, while Brent crude futures fell 15 cents, or 0.4%, to $38.82.

PSX on Monday nosedived due to panic selling in almost all sectors on investors concerns over increasing coronavirus cases and prevailing political uncertainty in the country. The KSE-100 Index plunged by 775.82 points or 1.94 percent to close at 39,112.18 points. Trading activity also remained thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 322.289 million shares as compared to 541.779 million shares traded on previous session.