Zubair Yaqoob
Karachi
Market opened on a positive note on Friday with +89pts and went up by 236pts during the session, closing +203pts at 34K level. Bounce in international crude prices helped oil and gas stocks to stage some recovery from recent past sessions. OGDC and PPL particularly performed well. In the anticipation of rate cut by the Central bank, Cement sector also performed though posted limited gains. FEROZ continued ascent on the back of its arrangement with Gilead for manufacturing of Remdesivir, and made consecutive cap for past several sessions. Banking sector stocks remained subdued on the prospect of rate cut, however, active buying interest was observed in both BOP and HBL, which have since the beginning of the week performed well. Cement sector recorded trading volume of 29.7M shares, followed by Technology (26.3M) and O&GMCs (18.8M). Among scrips, HASCOL led the volumes with 14.8M shares, followed by KEL (12.2M) and MLCF (9.9M). The Index closed at 34,008pts as against 33,805pts showing an increase of 203pts (+0.6% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+109pts), Power (+58pts), Cement (+50pts), Food (+31pts), Fertilizer (+20pts) and Banks (-62pts). Volumes declined from 240.2mn shares from 213.3mn shares (-11% DoD). Average traded value inched up by 1% to reach US$ 38.8mn as against US$ 38.5mn.
