Last session buying spree on the Pakistan Stock Exchange led the market to close higher for the third straight day on the last trading day of the week.
On Friday, the market opened in the green. At the start of the session, the market gained over 60 points before plunging into the red zone. Then the market remained lacklustre and traded in the red zone for the remaining morning session.
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When the market opened after Friday break, bullish sentiment gripped the market and strong buying activity by the investors was witnessed.
At one point during the second session, the index surged by over 480 points. The market also crossed the psychological barrier of 48, 000 points level. However, at the close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 448.2 points to settle at 38,430.
During Friday’s trading, some 115,541,760 shares changed hands at the market.
Commenting on the Friday’s trade, senior analyst and chief executive officer (CEO) of Arif Habib Corp Ahsan Mehnati said that the bullish trend continued amid higher trades, as investors weigh Bloomberg’s report expecting IMF bailout programme finalisation by Christmas to curtail dwindling foreign exchange reserves.
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He said that SBP report hinting at surge in remittances in FY19, additional revenue measures to contain fiscal deficit, higher cotton output, narrowing current account deficit by FY19 and speculations on likely visit of PSX by the Finance Minister to provide relief measures for tax on stockbrokers, carry forward of trading losses to arrest PSX fall played a catalyst role in bullish close.
On Thursday too the market closed over 300 points up to settle at 37982 points on the back of attractive valuations and better-than-expected corporate results.
The KSE-100 shot up from the moment trading began, but dipped later. It then recovered as investors, encouraged by low share prices, picked selected stocks. The exploration and production sector came under pressure following the decline in international crude oil prices, but buying activity emerged in the sector before the end of the session.
At the close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 334.91 points or 0.89% to settle at 37,982.25.
Poor editing. How is Thursday the last trading day.