Karachi Stock Exchange 100 the, leading benchmark measure of Pakistan’s Equity performance today closed the day by gaining more than 128.93 points during the day despite a bearish close in the global equities markets, including EU, Asia and US shares.

On the macro front today, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) today released the Weekly SPI and Trade numbers. According to latest PBS data, total balance of trade deficit during the months of July– January FY ‘18 stood at $ -21.546 billion against -17.351 billion during July – January FY ‘17; a rise of 24.18% during the period. Imports for the cumulative period increased by 18.92% reaching a total sum of $ 34.512 billion despite Government’s efforts to reduce imports. However, during the cumulative period exports jumped by 13.19% to reach $ 12.966 billion vs. $ 11.67 billion last year.

 However, on the inflationary front, According to figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, weekly SPI for the combined group decreased by 0.03% compared to the previous week (Feb 01, 2018), meanwhile registering an increase of 1.66% compared to the corresponding period (Feb 09, 2017) last year.

Sector-wise all share index turnover was led by Engineering (26.321 million), Textile Composite (23.079 million), and Cement (22.652 million) with Miscellaneous (10.604 million) and Textile Spinning (8.106 million) stocks trailing at the bottom.

KSE – 100 Index at the day end moved a total of +128.93 points up by 0.30%, closing in at 43808.80 points with index high-low range of 43826.60 – 43286.24.

KSE – All Share Index Volume was at 225.631 million shares, value of shares traded for all-shares index reached PKR 9.239 billion.

KSE 100 Chart, Mettis Global

The index movement was limited within the 540.36 points range.

44 companies closed up, whereas 46 were down at the day end.