The Pakistan Stock Exchange has began the week on a positive note with its benchmark KSE-100 index rising by 2.85 percent or 1,085 points. This rise has made the index reach a new all-time high of 50,935 points. The surge in value was led mostly by the commercial banking stocks which saw the index close by a few points just shy of the 51,000 point mark.
According to an anonymous commercial bank analyst, bulls (stock buyers) were a dominant force that pushed the index higher. The attention of the investors was focused on the upcoming MSCI emerging-market review on the 15th of May.
On this day, 145 million shares with a value of Rs 16.5 billion were traded during the market open session. At the close of the day, the index was at 50,935.91 points. This was 1,084.78 points higher and 2.18 percent higher than the previous day’s session. However, this was not the high of the day since the index had surged to the 50,977.00 point mark before closing lower. The lowest the index reached in the open session was the 49,851.13 point mark. This day’s volume was 144,998,010 shares being exchanged between investors. The value of these shares was Rs 16,453,610,040.
Of the 410 companies whose shares were traded on this day, 255 of them saw their share values rise while 135 saw theirs go down in value. The remaining 20 saw no change at the end of the trading session. In terms of volume, Engro Polymer saw to 35 million of its shares traded. It was followed by the Bank of Punjab (18.3 million shares), Aisha Steel Mill (17.4 million shares), Bank Al-Falah (12.7 million shares) with TRG Pak Ltd closing the top five with 10.7 million of its shares being traded.
These numbers ensured that the KSE-100 index would reach an all-time high even when the shares of Engro Polymer dipped by 0.74 percentage points.
