The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) enjoyed another upbeat session on Wednesday as the KSE-100 Index rose by 422 points amid hopes that Pakistan will meet targets of the first review of IMF’s $3 billion Stand-by-Arrangement (SBA).

At close, the benchmark index settled at 52,342.64, up by 422.37 points or 0.81%.

“This aforesaid momentum can be attributed to the crucial talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) scheduled to begin Thursday for the 1st review of the IMF’s Stand By Arrangement, which could lead to the release of a $700 million tranche,” brokerage house Topline Securities said.

During the day, HUBC, POL, ILP, HBL & SYS contributed positively as they added 192 points. On the other hand, some stocks like ENGRO, PSEL and SHEL experienced profit-taking, resulting in a combined loss of 63 points, it added.

Another brokerage house Ismail Iqbal Securities said that equities remained bullish amid good volumes across the board on expectations on asset class shift from fixed income to equities asset class after recent gradual decline in oil prices in the international market.

On the economic front, the Pakistani rupee maintained its downward trajectory against the US dollar for the eighth consecutive session as it depreciated 0.42% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the local currency settled at 282.65, a decrease of Rs1.18.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 526.46 million from 455.33 million a session before.

The value of shares increased to Rs16.5 billion from Rs15.6 billion in the previous session.

Cnergyico PK remained the volume leader with 75.7 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 68.3.5 million shares and Pak Refinery with 55 million shares.

Shares of 353 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 216 registered an increase, 119 recorded a fall, while 18 remained unchanged.

Comments

Comments are closed.