The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed in the green on Friday after remaining locked in a decline since it peaked on August 20 at 150,591 points. According to reports, the exchange owes its recovery to strong institutional buying that firms engaged in prior to the release of August’s inflation data and amid easing futures rollover pressure.
Reports suggest that concerns pertaining to flooding have waned in Punjab, allowing the exchange to rebound. Moreover, market sentiment surged because of the federal government’s attempts to tackle the circular debt issue, rising foreign exchange reserves and a jump in the value of the rupee.
The benchmark index, the KSE-100, crossed the 148,500 point resistance level after gaining over 1,200 points since trading hours began. Institutional buying in the face of improving market sentiments caused the index to open in the green in the early hours of the day, later reaching an intraday high of 149,234.94 points.
The index peaked at approximately 2:39 PM, after which the market witnessed a minor sell off, causing the index to fall to about 148,617.77 points at the close of trading hours.
For reference, the KSE-100 closed at 147,343.50 points on Thursday, after which the index recorded a growth of 0.86 percent during trading hours on Friday, leading to a 1,274.27 point rise. The market displayed a slowdown around 9:39 AM as the KSE-100 hit its intraday trading low of 147,488.46 points.
All 18 indexes listed on the exchange remained in the green, with the All-share index (ALLSHR) growing by 0.74 percent, recording a climb of 669.39 points during trading hours. Unlike the KSE-100, which tracks the performance of the 100 largest and most liquid companies, the ALLSHR index records the performance of all publicly listed companies on the PSX.
A number of companies witnessed a rise in share prices, with First National Equities Limited (FNEL) and TPL Corp Limited (TPL) winning big, to the tune of growth rates that sat at 19.84 percent (FNEL) and 11.57 percent (TPL).
However, not every publicly listed stock witnessed an improvement, as many companies witnessed sharp declines. Of these declining companies, Dewan Mushtaq Textile Mills Limited (DMTM) posted a 10.01 percent decline in its position.