KARACHI - Led by banking sector, PSX index surged to new highs and touched highest level of 47,210 points by gaining 271.47 points or (0.58%).
HBL and UBL led the index by contributing 243 points to the gain. After a gap of almost 11 years, local index closed in green for 13 consecutive sessions, brokers said. Rising banking spreads and renewed interest in high yielding energy stocks owing to excess liquidity played a catalyst role in the record close.
Intraday rally was witnessed in the banking sector, as it gained to close 2.8 percent higher than its previous day close. HBL (rose 5%) and UBL (3.47%) were major index movers of the aforementioned sector. Profit taking was witnessed in the E&P sector on the back of nominal decline in crude oil prices, as it lost value to trade below $52/bl level. POL (slipped 2.17%) and OGDC (1.21%) were major losers of the aforementioned sector.
HUBC (up 3.66%) gained for the third consecutive trading session to close in the green zone on the back of extension in the financial closing and Implementation Agreement (IA) for its 660x2MW imported coal based power plant, stated an analyst at JS Global. Overall, volumes increased by 30 percent to 450 million shares, while value rose by 5.6 percent to Rs21.7 billion/$207 million. DSL was today’s volume leader with 58 million shares traded.
After rallying for past few sessions, profit taking led oil stocks to slide. PPL, OGDC and POL declined between 0.9%-2.6%. THALL announced that the company received two billion one hundred and twenty million rupees after closing hours yesterday as sale consideration of its 201,529,290 shares in MHCCP, which shares were simultaneously transferred by the Company to Metro Cash & Carry International Holding BV. This led the stock price to gain 1.9 percent, said dealers at Topline brokerage.