Staff Reporter
Karachi
Pre-budget optimism continued to have a positive impact on the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday as the KSE-100 index extended gains by 63 points in a range bound session.
Owing to mixed investor sentiment before the budget announcement, scheduled for Friday, and with the unveiling of Economic Survey 2019-20, the market traded in both directions where some investors resorted to profit-booking while others cherry-picked stocks.
Oil sector stocks came under selling pressure following a dip in global crude oil prices.
Earlier, stock trading kicked off with a spike and the index climbed in initial hours, however, selling pressure emerged later and wiped out the gains by noon. The index managed to climb in the second half again with investors making fresh investment due to positivity over the budget for 2020-21.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 63.50 points, or 0.18%, to settle at 35,128.58.
Second-tier and third-tier stocks performed well with significant trading volumes.
Engro (+1%), Fauji Fertiliser (+1.5%), Hubco (+0.2%) and Lucky Cement (+1.8%) were the index movers.
Traded value stood at $53 million, up 9% and volumes came in at 271 million shares, up 24%.
