Staff Reporter
Karachi
Bulls maintained their hold over the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday and extended the rally witnessed in the previous session. Investors took their cue from the encouraging current account data, released a day earlier by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Earlier, trading began with a sharp spike and the KSE-100 index crossed the 40,000-point mark within the first few minutes. The market remained on the upward trajectory for the rest of the day and closed with handsome gains.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 490.22 points, or 1.23%, to settle at 40,292.82 points.
Banking sector stocks advanced and were supported by a rebound in stock prices of exploration and production, oil marketing, refinery, chemical and steel sectors. The cement sector topped the volumes with trading in 88 million shares, followed by oil and gas marketing companies (66.4 million) and technology firms (56.7 million), the report said.
Lucky Cement (-0.6%) closed negative as it announced FY20 consolidated earnings per share (EPS) of Rs18.96, down 46% year-on-year, with no cash payout.
Pakistan Petroleum (+1.2%), Pakistan Oilfields (+1.9%) and Oil and Gas Development Company (+1.5%) in the exploration and production sector were in the positive zone despite mixed international crude oil prices due to expectation of massive production cuts in the US Gulf coast.
