KARACHI: Despite a very erratic day, bulls drove bears out on Thursday, ending the two-session losing run on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
The benchmark KSE-100 index reached a low of 113,234.31 and a high of 114,319.62 during the day. ultimately closing at 114,037.79, up 594.36 points or 0.52% from the previous day.
In the midst of a 41 basis point decline in treasury bond yields and anticipations of a fall in industrial electricity price following clearance by the International Monetary Fund, stocks recovered during the earnings season rally, according to Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation.
He pointed out that speculations ahead of the SBP monetary policy decision next week, the $1.2 billion current account surplus for July-December 2024-25, and a reduction in political risk all contributed to the bullish atmosphere at PSX.
According to Topline Securities Ltd., recent foreign corporate purchases have improved market confidence, and cement stocks are still a top priority. Engro Corporation, PSO, Fauji Cement, The Searle, and Maple Leaf Cement were major contributors to the positive shift, contributing 309 points to the index.
The PSX had a mixed trading session, but it ended well as value seekers took over following two consecutive negative closings, according to Ali Najib, Head of Sales at Insight Securities.
The direction of the market would be largely determined by the success of the weekend session. Bulls are expected to take over in the upcoming week if the index ends the week above 116,300 points, which would indicate a trend reversal. On the other hand, additional declines cannot be ruled out if the index closes below the low of 113,083 points from last week, Mr. Ali noted.
However, day-over-day, the traded value dropped 13.54 percent to Rs30.46 billion, while the trading volume dropped 9.15 percent to 675.43 million shares.
Cnergyico PK (143.69 million shares), WorldCall Telecom (78.19 million shares), Fauji Cement (47.17 million shares), Lotte Chemical (35.63 million shares), and Citi Pharma Ltd (32.52 million shares) were among the stocks that made up a sizable portion of the traded volume.