Karachi, May 15, 2020: Market opened on a positive note today with +89 points and went up by 236 points during the session, closing +203 points at 34K level. Bounce in international crude prices helped oil and gas stocks to stage some recovery from recent past sessions.
OGDC and PPL particularly performed well. In the anticipation of rate cut by the Central bank (to be decided today), Cement sector also performed though posted limited gains. FEROZ continued ascent on the back of its arrangement with Gilead for manufacturing of Remdesivir, and made consecutive cap for past several sessions.
Banking sector stocks remained subdued on the prospect of rate cut, however, active buying interest was observed in both BOP and HBL, which have since the beginning of the week performed well.
Cement sector recorded trading volume of 29.7 million shares, followed by Technology (26.3 million) and O&GMCs (18.8 million). Among scrips, HASCOL led the volumes with 14.8 million shares, followed by KEL (12.2 million) and MLCF (9.9 million).
The Index closed at 34,008 points as against 33,805 points showing an increase of 203 points (+0.6 percent DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+109 points), Power (+58 points), Cement (+50 points), Food (+31 points), Fertilizer (+20 points) and Banks (-62 points).
Volumes declined from 240.2 million shares from 213.3 million shares (-11 percent DoD). Average traded value inched up by 1 percent to reach US$ 38.8 million as against US$ 38.5 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HASCOL, KEL, MLCF, FFL and FCSC, which formed 25 percent of total volumes. Stocks that contributed positively to the index include HUBC (+53 points), NESTLE (+34 points), MARI (+33 points), POL (+29 points) and OGDC (+25 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include BAHL (-22 points), MCB (-21 points), UBL (-19 points), DAWH (-15 points), and PAKT (-12 points).
