ISLAMABAD: The 100-index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued with a bullish trend on Wednesday while registering new records a couple of times during the last couple of weeks; on Wednesday, the index gained 827.17 points with a positive change of 1.44 percent to cross another all-time high over 58000 benchmarks. At close, the market settled at 58,198.76 points against 57,371.59 points on Tuesday. This was for the first time in history when the index crossed the benchmark.
During the day, a total of 596,217,827 shares valuing Rs 22.054 billion were transacted against 1,012,258,472 shares valuing Rs 19.338 billion on the previous day.
In total, 389 companies traded their shares in the stock market; 236 of them recorded gains and 136 sustained losses, whereas the share prices of 17 remained unchanged.
Like the previous day, WorldCall Telecom remained the volume leader among the top-three trading companies with 50,345,392 shares at Rs1.64 per share, followed by Fauji Fert Bin with 23,277,000 shares at Rs 22.94 per share, whereas Fauji Foods Ltd settled as number three from the top with 20,177,342 shares at Rs 8.99 per share.
Ismail Ind recorded a maximum appreciation of Rs 60.47 per share price, closing at Rs 866.72, whereas Siemens Pak settled as the runner-up with an increase of Rs 50.40 in its per share price to Rs 812.40.
Colgate Palm witnessed a maximum decline of Rs 225.22 per share, closing at Rs 10,324.78, followed by Philip Morris Pak with a decline of Rs 20.00 per share to settle at Rs 516.00.
Bullish Trend at PSX
During the last couple of weeks, the Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a remarkable bullish trend except a single bearish trend last Friday (due to profit taking). On Thursday, the 100 Index crossed the 57,000 level for the first time in history. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the index reached a new historic high and crossed the 58,000 mark.
During the day, most of the time, buying was witnessed particularly in the heavy sectors, including automobiles, cement, chemicals, the banking sector, oil and gas, fertilizers, etc.
According to the experts, the recent upward and positive sentiments in the market were due to the recent agreement between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reach a staff-level agreement on the first review for 9-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) of $3bn.
