PSX begins week on positive note

• KSE-100 index gains 382.41 points to settle at 43,933.56.
• Shares of 328 companies were traded during the session. 
• Overall trading volumes drop to 132.63 million shares.

KARACHI: The bears and bulls locked horns at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday as the KSE-100 index traded on both sides of the fence, but closed with a gain of 382 points.

Sectors contributing to the performance included cement (+120.1 points), commercial banks (+50.4 points), automobile assembler (+48 points), exploration and production (+40.3 points), and pharmaceuticals (+20.9 points).

At the close, the KSE-100 index gained 382.41 points, or 0.88%, to settle at 43,933.56 points.

A report from Arif Habib Limited noted that the benchmark KSE-100 index stayed in the red territory during the first trading hour due to political unrest and further rupee devaluation against the US dollar.

“The cement sector remained in the limelight due to price increase by another Rs15 per bag in the south except for Karachi,” the brokerage house said, adding that mainboard activity remained dull.

Meanwhile, on the flip side, activity continued to remain side-ways as the market witnessed hefty volumes in the third-tier stocks. In the last trading hour, value buying was witnessed which led the index to close in the green zone.

Shares of 328 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 216 scrips closed in the green, 87 in the red, and 25 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes dropped to 132.63 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 161.93 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.8 billion.

Telecard Limited was the volume leader with 13.11 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.72 to close at Rs11.17. It was followed by WorldCall with 6.66 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.01 to close at Rs1.57, and K-Electric with 6.60 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.11 to close at Rs3.02.