Business desk
KARACHI: The bulls dominated trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index rallied, gaining nearly 400 points on the back of strong investor sentiment.
Clarity on the political front after Ishaq Dar took oath as senator and diminishing concerns rupee depreciation encouraged market players to buy stocks.
The KSE-100 index shot up from the moment trading began and, despite a brief drop in midday trading, it maintained its upward march.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 41,581.23 points with an increase of 366.69 points or 0.89%.
A report from Arif Habib Limited noted that PSX witnessed a positive session today as further clarity on political grounds pushed the market in the green and maintained its upward trend from the previous close.
“Pakistani rupee continued to strengthen against the US Dollar giving the investor’ confidence boost,” the brokerage house stated, adding that in contrast to solid main board volumes, third-tier companies continued to remain in the limelight.
Sectors contributing to the performance included exploration and production (+93.1 points), banks (+55 points), cement (+42.5 points), fertiliser (+39.2 points), and pharmaceuticals (+20.7 points).
Shares of 338 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 197 scrips closed in the green, 111 in the red, and 30 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes rose to 230.65 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 213.02 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.62 billion.
TPL Properties was the volume leader with 26.87 million shares traded, gaining Rs1.44 to close at Rs21.16. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 20.81 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.96 to close at Rs127.61 and K-Electric with 12.82 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.09 to close at Rs3.04.
