ZUBAIR YAQOOB
KARACHI Market saw a jump of 1038pts during the session and closed +866pts that was reflection of a combination of factors including 5% increase in the price of WTI, PIB yields trending below 9% and expectation of further rate cut by SBP in the coming monetary policy. ECC’s consideration of issuance of Sukuk II also paved the way for index heavy weight HUBC to trade near upper circuit, after consolidating for past couple of sessions. Similarly, PSO leapt forward on the prospects of Sukuk II issuance to trade near upper circuit. Among Banks, MCB remained steadfast and with the apparent slowdown of selling pace in HBL and UBL from foreign investors, the Index found solid support from Banking sector. Jump in international crude prices helped OGDC touch 100 rupee mark for the first time since March 16, 2020 after which it kept falling over several sessions and touched an intra-day low of 73.25 on March 30th. Cement sector realized trading volumes of 60.9M shares, followed by O&GMCs (27.3M) and Banks (16.6M). Among scrips, UNITY made a consecutive top of 28.7M shares, followed by HASCOL (25.8M) and PAEL (14.1M).
