KARACHI - The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended week on positive note with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 104 points or (0.24 percent) and to close at 42,787 points.
The market remained volatile, making an intraday high/low of 331 and 145 points to close at 42,787 level, in anticipation of FTSE and S&P rebalancing of PSX stocks from Frontier to Emerging Market, dealers said. Mixed sentiment were witnessed in the banking sector where HBL (up 3.73pc) and AKBL (gain 0.84pc) closed in the green zone, while on the flipside MCB (down 2.66pc), NBP (dip 0.40pc) and BAFL (slip 1.66pc) closed in the red trajectory.
In the E&P sector, OGDC and PPL announced their results for FY17 on Friday, where OGDC (slip 1.10pc) posted EPS of Rs14.83 accompanied by a DPS of Rs2.0 taking full year DPS to Rs6.0. Whereas, PPL (down 0.40pc) posted an EPS of Rs18.10 and DPS of Rs6. SNGP (slump 3.17pc) and SSGC (down 0.41pc) from the gas utility lost value to close negative on the back of news that both the companies have rejected the 7.1 percent Unaccounted for Gas (UFG) losses proposed by consultants hired by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) but agreed on raising the levels from the existing 4.5 percent, said analyst at JS Global.
Investor interest was seen in cements as PIOC (up 1.89pc), DGKC (rose 1.17pc), MLCF (gain 1.14pc) and LUCK (up 1.10pc) all closed in the green zone. Stocks closed higher amid speculation on renewed foreign inflows after FTSE Global Equity Index Series Asia Pacific announcement on inclusion of PSX stocks in semi annual review, observed analyst Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib.
Volumes shrank in today's session as 200 million shares were traded in the overall market, compared to 217 million shares in the last trading session. While traded value rose to Rs13 billion/$124 million. Scrips of total 383 active companies participated in the session of which 133 closed in green, 231 in red while 19 remained unchanged. Volume was led by Dost Steels with 16.3 million shares traded and by TRG Pak with 10.3 million shares traded. Brokers expect positivity to continue for the coming week and recommend investors to book profits on strength.
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