Pakistan Stock Exchange rises 1.27%

Pakistan Stock Exchange today continued on its weeklong rally after going through its worst week (last week) during 2017. Index has gained a significant momentum after the political storm slowly yet surely subsides as ex-PM Nawaz Sharif along with his family was indicted in the corruption cases by NAB courts. Index has also been buoyed on the back of Prime Minister's announcement to setup a stock market fund.

Top five points contributors during the session were; HBL +39.09, MCB +36.13, SNGP +33.93, HUBC +33.02 and PPL +27.34, cumulatively adding a total of 169.51 points to the close. On the other hand, POL -10.73, NESTLE -6.76, NBP -4.98, PSMC -4.89 and AICL -4.36 posted negative points on the index. 

Engineering and Chemical stocks witnessed most turnover during the day as the index volume was around the same level as yesterday, hovering at 110 million levels.

State Bank released Current Account deficit numbers today. According to the SBP data, current deficit during September 2017 was reported at US $ 956 million against US $ 550 million in the month of August due to the lower remittances in the previous month. Current Account deficit during July – Sept stood at US $ 3.6 billion, 4.2% of the total GDP.

Habib Bank Ltd. announced nine months earnings of Rs. 1.5 billion PKR against the 25.7 billion PKR during the same period last year. The bank profits declined after it paid off a 23.7 billion penalty imposed by the Department of New York Financial Services early in September. The bank agreed to settle the decision outside the court and agreed to pay a penalty of USD 225 million.

[Exhibit: HBL Intraday Trading]

Index activity remained almost the same as of yesterday dropping merely by 2 million during the day. However, the value traded declined 7.5%, as investors weighed in on the market sentiment.

KSE-100 Index at the day end moved a total of +529.82 points up by 1.27%, closing at 42087.89 points. Index Volume was 111.81 million shares, value of shares traded was PKR 9.97 billion with index low-high range of 41471.24 – 42155.72.

[Exhibit: KSE - 100 Intraday Trading]

The index movement was limited within the 684.48 points range.

66 companies closed up, whereas 17 were down at the day end.