PSX Closing Bell: Stars Will Align

January 11, 2024 (MLN): The benchmark KSE-100 index concluded Thursday's trading session at 64,617.57 showing an increase of 697.72 points or 1.09%.

Investors remain optimistic for a positive outcome from today's meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the second loan tranche of $700 million.

Moreover, yesterday's T-Bills auction suggested that the market continue to bet on an interest rate cut in the coming months, as was seen by the huge participation.

Investors aggressively tried to secure higher yields with a total participation of around Rs2.75 trillion before the anticipated rate drop.

In today's session, the index traded in a range of 786.03 points showing an intraday high of 64,700.97 (+781.13) and a low of 63,914.94 (-4.90) points.

The total volume of the KSE-100 index was 365.091 million shares.

Of the 100 index companies 71 closed up, 23 closed down, 1 was unchanged, while 5 remained untraded.

KSE-100 index was supported by Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 341.39, Commercial Banks with 107.64, Power Generation & Distribution with 57.25, Cement with 53.87, and Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 39.83 points.

On the contrary, the index was let down by Fertilizer with 25.89, Tobacco with 9.02, Chemical with 3.24, Refinery with 2.21, and Sugar & Allied Industries with 1.66 points.

Companies adding points to the index were MARI with 127.59, PPL with 121.85, OGDC with 86.11, HBL with 42.46, and HUBC with 27.81 points.

MARI on Thursday announced the discovery of gas At Shewa-2 North Waziristan.

Meanwhile, companies that dragged the index lower were ENGRO with 31.49, PAKT with 9.02, BAFL with 7.55, BAHL with 6.15 and EFERT with 6.03 points.

In the broader market, the All-Share index closed at 43,710.68 with a net gain of 518.31 points.

Total market volume was 586.549 million shares compared to 636.168 from the previous session while traded value was recorded at Rs17.02 billion showing a decrease of Rs0.96bn.

There were 177,968 trades reported in 358 companies with 203 closing up, 130 closing down and 25 remaining unchanged.

To note, the KSE-100 has gained 23,165 points or 55.88% during the fiscal year, whereas the ongoing calendar year has witnessed a cumulative increase of 2,167 points, equivalent to 3.47%.

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