The share prices remained upbeat at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday as the index rose by over 1,800 points during the opening session of trading, reported 24NewsHDTV channel.
At 11:00 am, the PSX’s benchmark KSE-100 soared by 1,817.10 points or 1.58% to reach 115,023.50 points amid hectic buying by investors.
Of the 389 companies traded so far, share prices of 298 companies went up, 75 declined while 75 remained unchanged.
Economic analysts said that optimism grew over corporate earnings, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) proposal to reduce gas-sector circular debt and commitments made by a US investors delegation.
On Thursday, positivity returned to the PSX after three consecutive days of selling as the benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 1,719.04 points.
At yesterday’s close, the stock market had settled at 113,206.40 points.
Buying interest was recorded in index-heavy sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and refineries.
Key stocks including HUBCO, NRL, PSO, SHEL, SNGP, OGDC, PPL, POL, MARI, MCB, and MEBL were traded in the green.
A total of 483,939,931 shares were entertained during the day as compared to 449,244,755 shares the last working day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs26.103 billion against Rs. 28.186 billion on the previous trading day.
As many as 441 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 272 of them registered gains, and 118 met losses, whereas the share price of 51 companies remained unchanged.
The three top trading companies were Sui South Gas with 48,364,956 shares at Rs39.11 per share followed by Waves Home Appliances with 33,226,540 shares at Rs12.78 per share whereas Bank Hakramah settled with 31,509,642 shares at Rs3.71 per share.
Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited registered a maximum increase of Rs286.49 per share closing at Rs22,387.00 whereas Rafhan Maize Products Company Limited was the runner-up with Rs98.05 rise in its share price to close at Rs9,498.05.
Al-Abbas Sugar Mills Limited witnessed a maximum decline of Rs35.19 per share price, closing at Rs679.22, whereas the runner-up was Excide Pakistan Limited with Rs28.84 drop in its per share price to Rs781.36.
Reporter: Basim Iftikhar