Staff Reporter
Karachi
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended the week on a bullish note on Friday, despite political uncertainty taking a toll on market performance.
The market’s advance was attributed to brisk buying in cement and banking sector stocks.
In the banking sector, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) posted its financial results for third quarter of the current calendar year, with earnings per share of Rs6.85, up 104% year-on-year, which strengthened investors’ sentiment.
Moreover, cement sector stocks picked up pace towards the end of the session with heavy buying in DG Khan Cement. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 95.52 points, or 0.24%, to settle at 40,164.02 points.
Brisk buying was also observed in the cement sector, particularly DG Khan Cement, in the last half hour that helped the index close positive.
Sectors contributing to the performance were banks (+130 points), textile (+12 points), vanaspati (+11 points), exploration and production (-25 points), food (-21 points) and autos (-7 points).
Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included HBL (+100 points), Meezan Bank (+26 points), Unity Foods (+11 points), Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim (+11 points) and DG Khan Cement (+10 points).
