Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday achieved another historic milestone as the benchmark KSE-100 index, for the first time in its history breached 44,000 psychological level on the back of continuous buying mainly by local investors and institutions.
At the end of the session, the index closed at highest ever level of 44,199.40 points with healthy increase of 459.43 points on Tuesday. However, foreign investors remained net sellers of shares and withdrew $13.2 million from Pakistan stock market. Trading activities improved as the daily trading volumes at ready counter increased to 372.585 million shares as compared to 345.467 million shares traded on Monday. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 72 billion to Rs 8.939 trillion. Out of the total 431 active scrips, 231 closed in positive and 186 in negative while the value of 14 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 22.801 million shares and gained Rs 0.18 to close at Rs 9.41 followed by Fauji Cement that increased by Rs 1.95 to close at Rs 41.10 with 17.316 million shares. Faysal Bank inched up by Rs 0.73 to close at Rs 20.80 with 16.781 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Wyeth Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 288.45 and Rs 217.40 respectively to close at Rs 8078.45 and Rs 4565.40 while Unilever Foods and Khyber Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 100.00 and Rs 58.70 respectively to close at Rs 5600.00 and Rs 1115.30.
An analyst at Global Securities said that the PSX crossed the 44,000 level for the first time in the history, a record breaking event, closing at the level of 44,199 points, up by 459 points or 1.05 percent. Major upside came from the cement sector following APCMA''s announcement of the sector achieving a capacity utilisation of 99 percent and increase in cement sales of 11 percent during the month of November. Resultantly, all the scrips within the sector closed with major gains, supporting the index by 165 points in aggregation. Within the cement sector DGKC, MLCF, FCCL, CHCC, PIOC, THCCL and BWCL closed at their upper circuit. Furthermore, WYETH also closed at its upper circuit after the news break of possible disposal of one of its manufacturing facility and certain related products manufactured at the facility. "The market has scored a winning streak of 1580 points in the past four trading sessions, in the near term we expect the market to correct as selling pressure builds up," the analyst said.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the PSX notches new record closing led by cement, banking and oil stocks on strong valuations. Higher global crude prices amid Opec output cut agreement; surge in cement sales, highest cement capacity utilisation and rising banking spreads data in November 2016 played a catalyst role in bullish close.