PSX Reaches Its Highest Level Since November 2018

Pakistan Stock Exchange has started the new year with a bang, as the benchmark index, KSE-100, went on a bullish run for the second consecutive day of the new year as index surged by 1143 points during the intraday. The bulls have helped the market to surge over the 42,500 point mark, which is the highest level seen over the last sixteen months (August 2018 on intraday basis).

However, on a closing basis, the last time the market touched a high of 42000 level was back in November 2018. According to the data compiled by the Capital Stake, the market has recorded a new 52-week high of 42,543 points. The index had failed to close beyond the 42,000 level throughout 2019.

At the end of the day, the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed 1080.76 points or 2.48% higher to settle at 42,480.
The exchange traded in the green zone throughout the trading session reaching a high of 1144 points.

Banks, Oil, Cements and Other sectors pulled the overall sentiment of the market upward and closed on the back of amendment in tax on dividend, legislation on extension of Chief of Army Staff and inflow of banks & foreign investors in the local market were the major contributor, said Zain Uddin who is a Senior Equity Analyst at Multiline Securities.

UBL 3.9%, HBL (3%), MCB (2%) LUCK (5%), PPL (3%) & PSO (4.5%) were the major gainers of the aforementioned sector.

Moreover, traders are aggressively shifting their investment from the fixed income saving products to the stock market, as the Central Directorate of National Savings is ready to cut the rate of return on investment in national savings products, Usama Bin Saeed, who is a Senior Manager Institutional Sales at Multiline Securities.

He further added that the market was expecting an announcement of a financial package from UAE’s Prince visit. The inflation rate for the month of December was largely in line with market expectations.

It is pertinent to mention that the KSE-100 index closed 2019 with a positive return of 10% which boosted the investors’ confidence as the investors started a buying spree for the second day as well.

Encouraged by the optimism seen over the past few days, the participation of mutual funds took positions for the year ahead.

Overall, 412.08 million shares were traded today, while 282.69 million shares were traded in KSE-100. Shares of 366 companies were traded overall. At the end of the day, 278 stocks closed higher, 77 declined and 11 remained unchanged.

Top volume leaders of the day were:

SCRIP	PRICE	HIGH	LOW	CHANGE	VOLUME
KEL	4.77	4.90	4.68	0.04	46,828,000
BOP	12.04	12.21	11.80	0.31	27,923,000
FFL	15.81	16.10	15.42	0.36	21,482,500
UNITY	17.25	17.44	16.85	0.42	20,120,500
PAEL	29.50	29.64	27.90	1.41	20,009,000
STPL	12.53	13.00	12.35	0.10	11,508,500
WTL	1.53	1.56	1.46	0.06	10,414,000