KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange continued its upward trajectory on Tuesday (today) with the KSE-100 index rising by 294.92 points, to breach the 48,000 level after four years.
After opening on a positive note, the market remained in the green throughout the session, seeing an intraday high of 48,237.61 points and a low of 47,896.34 points. It settled at 48,191.26 points at the close of the day.
The PSX was trading at 48,212 points around 11:30 am — the highest level in the past four years — after the benchmark index included 316 points.
Oil and gas exploration companies captured the maximum gains in the morning session, contributing 61 points to the index, followed by commercial banks and cement with 57 and 47 points, respectively. Company-wise, the scrips of LUCK, HBL, ENGRO, POL, and OGDC gathered the maximum points.
Sectors fueling the bullish sentiment included oil and gas exploration, fertilizer, and the pharmaceutical sector (24.48 points).
On Monday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued to head north, with the indices accumulating gains all day long amid positive sentiments.
The market kicked off trading on a positive note and traded range-bound. However, the overall optimism continued to prevail. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 770.05 points, or 1.63%, to settle at 47,896.34.
Sectors contributing to the performance included banks (+98 points), exploration and production (+96 points), oil and gas marketing companies (+53 points), fertilizer (+39 points) and auto (+22 points).
Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included DG Khan Cement (+45 points), Lucky Cement (+45 points), Pakistan State Oil (+41 points), HBL (+32 points) and Oil and Gas Development Company (+31 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively were Fauji Fertiliser (-9 points), NBP (-5 points), K-Electric (-4 points), Shifa International Hospitals (-2 points) and GlaxoSmithKline (-2 points).
The cement sector also enjoyed the upward rally where DG Khan Cement (+7.3%), Power Cement (+9.9%), Pioneer Cement (+5.2%), Maple Leaf Cement (+4.3%) and Lucky Cement (+1.9%) managed to close in the green.
