KARACHI: Bulls returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday as the stock market witnessed an upward trajectory due to improved investor sentiment.
The benchmark KSE 100 index witnessed a rise of 842.37 points in intraday trading and closed at 28,109.57 points. This marks a healthy gain of 3.49 percent as the stock market is facing one of the worst times due to the coronavirus pandemic. The bourse crossed the 28,000 points and manage to retain the gains before trading was suspended. The total volume of shared traded was 141.970 million valued at Rs3.93 billion.
Meanwhile, the lower bench KSE 30 index also witnessed a rise of 441.05 points (3.71%) and closed at 12,320.24 points. The total volume of scripts at the bourse were 55.411 million. The share price of several top active stock increased notably Unity (5.72%), TRG (8.08%), MLCF (4.47%), BOP (1.75%), FCCL (7.84%), CHCC (7.43%) and PIOC (7.50%).
This is the second consecutive day since the stock market has demonstrated a turnaround. The KSE 100 index soared by over 900 points before losing momentum and giving up almost gains in intraday before closing with a minuscule gain of only 38 points.
The investor sentiment improved after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank called for suspending debt payments by poorest nations. There were even reports that the State Bank of Pakistan would announce further measures to facilitate virus-hit local markets.
On the downward side, the rupee depreciated against the US dollar and reached an all-time high of Rs169 in intra-bank trading. The central bank had reduced the interest rate of eleven percent earlier this week to provide much-needed relief to businesses affected by the pandemic.
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