Stocks surge 1,113 points as bulls return to market
Stocks surged as the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued trading on a positive note, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index advancing 1,113 points, or 2.5 per cent, to touch 45,636 on Tuesday.
The market touched the day's high at 45,669 points towards closing, while the day's low of 44,517 was recorded early during the day.
Close to 84 million shares of KSE-100 companies, worth over Rs7.1 billion, were traded during the day.
"KSE‐100 remained upbeat today as media coverage of the second day of court proceedings indicated that the odds of the incumbent prime minister being ousted in a hasty fashion were slimming down," read a note from Topline Securities. "The market was further spurred by anecdotal reports suggesting that a petition seeking disqualification of the Punjab chief minister (the PM’s brother) was also dismissed."
The engineering sector led the day's trading with 18.7m shares, following Monday's trend. Commercial banks and technology followed closely with 17.5m and 15.5m shares traded respectively.
"Stocks opened on a positive note yet traded lackluster in the early hours," read a note from Elixir Securities. "However, activity in index names started to pick up as the day progressed on buying interest, reportedly from local institutional investors."
Stocks of 372 companies were traded, with 296 of them gaining value. Stocks of 66 companies declined while those of 10 companies remained unchanged.
Volumes were led by:
TRG Pak Ltd: 11.3m shares traded [+4.97pc];
K-Electric Ltd: 8.9m shares traded [+1.21pc];
Aisha Steel Mill: 7.2m shares traded [+3.12pc];
Engro Polymer: 6.9m shares traded [+4.92pc];
Sui South Gas: 6.2m shares traded [+3.85pc].