KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at a new all-time high for the second consecutive day, mainly led by activity in banking sector. The KSE-100 index gained 55.72 points (0.14 per cent) to close at 39,861.60 points.

Volumes were up 59pc to 385 million shares, as 110m shares, which accounted for 60pc of the days entire volume, were traded in KEL alone. KEL was mainly driven by media reports of Shanghai Electric and ENGRO bidding $2.8bn for a 66.4pc stake in the electric company, presently held by KES Power (Abraaj group and Al-Jomaih group). ENGRO later came out with an announcement that it had not participated in any bid to purchase the utility company.

Investor interest was seen in banking with UBL and HBL leading the sector by contributing 77pts and 33pts each to the KSE-100 Index. According to media reports, Dewan Farooque Motors (DFML) applied to resume vehicle production at its currently closed plant. Resultantly, the stock closed at its upper limit.

Analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan at JS Global stated that the oil sector remained under pressure throughout the day on the back of declining global crude oil prices and major laggards of the sector were OGDC and POL down 0.73pc and 1.26pc respectively. On the other hand PPL rallied on the back of news that the company had commissioned a second gas processing facility in Gambat South.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2016