KARACHI: The upward rally at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 719 points to close at 44,898 points.
The PSX continued its positive run till midday as the benchmark 100-index added huge 609 points to reach 44788 level on Monday. The stocks started new week on bullish note after adding 108 points to reach 44287 point level in early trading.
Volumes at the exchange soared to over 294 million shares, while the total traded value stood at Rs13.25 billion. Of the 380 scrips traded, 275 advanced, 91 declined and 14 remained unchanged. The cement sector dominated by a margin, with 47.9m shares traded.
Last week, the bullish sentiments prevailed at the local bourse as the KSE-100 index closed 2.9 percent WoW (week on week) higher at 44,179 points.
Volumes and total value traded remained modest, ending down 33 percent WoW (184m shares/day) and 28 percent WoW ($80mn/day), respectively. Foreigners were key net buyers during the week with net buying of $31.5m (with Friday witnessing net buying for 17th consecutive day), whereas local Mutual Funds were net sellers of $12.1m. On a sector-wise basis, Cements (+6.1 percent WoW), textiles (+1.2 percent WoW) and fertilizers (+3.1 percent WoW) were key outperformers.
Participation declined significantly, average volumes decreased 30 percent WoW while value declined 28 percent. Stocks including HBL (+6 percent), ENGRO (+7 percent), LUCK (+7 percent), HUBC (+5 percent) & DGKC (+9 percent) added 531pts to the index, while NRL (-8 percent ), ATRL (-5 percent), JDWS (-8 percent), PAKT (-6 percent) & PKGS (-6 percent) withheld 47 points. On the sector front, banks, cement and fertilizer sector cumulatively added 750pts whereas refinery sector took away 27points.
Foreigners bought $33m worth of shares during the week vs buying of $26m during the last week. On the local front, Mutual Funds were net sellers of $12.8m whereas individuals were net sellers of $10.1m.