Staff Reporter
Karachi
The stock market rose on Tuesday following a topsy-turvy session a day earlier as buying interest in shares of cement companies helped the benchmark index march upwards.
After a rocky start, the KSE-100 index managed to post decent recovery and maintained the bullish momentum throughout the session..
At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 175.47 points, or 0.55%, to settle at 32,254.32 points.
Cement stocks were the major gainers as Kohat Cement (+5%), DG Khan Cement (+5%), Cherat Cement (+5%) and Pioneer Cement (+5.2%) hit their upper price limits whereas Lucky Cement (+2.1%) was also a major gainer. Cement stocks gained ground on market talk that cement prices were likely to increase by Rs20 per bag.
The exploration and production (E&P) sector was the major laggard as Pakistan Oilfields (-1.4%), Pakistan Petroleum (-0.3%) and Oil and Gas Development Company (-0.2%) remained in the red as international crude prices fell plummeted.
