Staff Reporter
Karachi
The stock market largely ignored political uncertainty for the third straight day on Friday, notching up modest gains.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), workers’ remittances increased to $2.34 billion in November 2020, 2.4% higher than in October and 28.4% higher than in November 2019.
Earlier, the index opened higher and continued its upward march. A few dips were, however, noted due to which trading remained largely range bound. The index plunged after resuming trading in the second session, nonetheless, bulls managed to pull the index into the green zone.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 164.56 points, or 0.39%, to settle at 42,470.40 points.
The market stood bullish where Mari Petroleum (+2.7%), Pakistan Petroleum (+2%), Pakistan Oilfields (+2%), Lucky Cement (+0.8%), Azgard Nine (+7.5%) and Hubco (+1.2%) cumulatively added 125 points to the positive momentum. A total of 558 million shares were traded. Activity was mostly seen in the second and third-tier stocks where Pakistan Refinery (+7%) closed sharply higher while Azgard Nine (+7.5%) touched its upper circuit.
Overall, trading volumes surged to 557.6 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 472.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs23.9 billion.
