KARACHI: Optimism prevailed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday and the KSE-100 index extended gains as investors cheered the receipt of long-awaited $1.2 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan tranche.
Owing to the positivity, the KSE-100 closed with a gain of 108.93 points or 0.26% at 42,460.08 level.
Moreover, investors brushed off the upward revision in prices of petroleum products and lofty inflation reading as the KSE-100 index remained in the green zone throughout the day.
Trading began with a spike and the market kept on climbing in early hours however, selling pressure emerged towards noon and wiped off some of the gains. The final hours saw the index turn range-bound but still it managed to close with gains.
Majority index-heavy sectors closed in the green. Despite the positivity, fertiliser and chemical sector closed on a negative note.
The release of the loan tranche from IMF elevated investors’ confidence.
Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 north included cement (83.07 points), banking (19.51 points) and technology and communication (18.75 points).
Volume on the all-share index rose to 248.2 million from 181.27 million on Wednesday. On the other hand, the value of shares traded jumped to Rs8.02 billion from Rs7.2 billion recorded in the previous session.
Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 35.6 million shares, followed by Maple Leaf Cement with 23.6 million shares and Fauji Cement with 13.8 million shares.
Shares of 345 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 185 registered an increase, 132 recorded a fall, and 28 remained unchanged.
