The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a resurgence of investor confidence for the trading week on Wednesday, leading to the KSE-100 index ending the week with a big gain. The buying trend in the market was seen due to interest in shares of banking, fertiliser, energy and selected blue-chip companies.
The market started with the KSE-100 index at 173,870.27 points, reached a peak of 176,701.38 points, and a minimum of 173,870.27 points during the trading session. At the end of the session, the index closed at 175,285.78 points, up 1,766.97 points, or 1.02 percent.
The volume of all the shares of the companies on the index was approximately 248.39 million shares in the positive trend. The overall performance of the index, however, since the start of the financial year (from the end of December 2011) was negative by 2.78 percent and in the calendar year (from the end of December 2011) it was positive by 0.71 percent, suggesting that investors remain cautious despite the recent bull market.
The most supportive stocks were United Bank Limited (UBL), Engro Holdings (ENGROH), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Meezan Bank (MEBL) and Habib Bank Limited (HBL) that were responsible for most of the positive points on the index. On the other hand, stocks like Bank Alfalah (BAHL), TRG Pakistan (TRG), K Electric (KEL), IBL Phil (IBFL) and Ghani Global (GHNI) limited the index’s momentum to some extent.
The KMI-30 index also had positive performance on the same day. The index opened at 244,863.51 points, reached a high of 248,799.32 points during the trading session and finally closed at 246,775.63 points, which is equivalent to a gain of 2,407.71 points or 0.99%.
Engro Holdings, Meezan Bank, Fauji Fertilizer Company, Effifort and Lucky Cement were the positive contributors in the KMI-30 index while Ghani Global, National Refinery, Sui Northern Gas, CPHL and Pakistan Refinery were under selling pressure.
The market experts indicate that there was a strong trend in the recent session to re-allocate towards good quality companies. In the next sessions, considering the market fluctuations, it is possible to keep the positive trend as long as the economic indicators and fiscal policy are as expected and the results of the companies are as expected, they said. They did, however, caution investors to make an investment decision based on their financial needs, risk tolerance and good research.