At close, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE 100-share Index, however, recorded trimmed gains of 0.67% or 284.99 points to stand at 42,907.36.
JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon said positivity prevailed in the market as the index rallied around 285 points. “The exploration and production (E&P) sector led the market’s rise as Opec, in a surprise move, agreed to its first production cut since 2008.”
The E&P sector closed (4.34%) higher from its previous day’s close as crude oil prices surged to trade comfortably above $49 per barrel, said Haroon.
Pakistan Oilfields Limited and Pakistan Petroleum Limited were major movers of the sector as they rose to close near their respective upper circuits.
“The banking sector lost most of its intraday gains after the Consumer Price Index for November 2016 stood at 3.8% year-on-year versus 4.2% for October 2016,” he said.
Elixir Securities analyst Ali Raza said equities closed positive after E&P stocks bounced back, snapping a two-day losing streak.
“The market opened higher from the word go with index-heavy E&Ps leading the charge following a sharp surge in global crude,” he said.
“The wider market too caught up with the gains albeit on relatively thin volumes and pushed the KSE-100 to its second-best all-time intraday high.”
However, Raza said, the index could not sustain that level for long and gradually skidded lower to lose more than half of the points on profit-booking.
Trading volumes rose to 504 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 394 million.
Shares of 425 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 196 stocks closed higher, 217 declined while 12 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs18.07 billion.
The Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 40.7 million shares, losing Rs0.87 to finish at Rs18.64. It was followed by Pace (Pak) Limited with 20.5 million shares, losing Rs0.23 to close at Rs12.93 and K-Electric Limited with 20.4 million shares, losing Rs0.03 to close at Rs9.18.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs906 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2016.
Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ