ZUBAIR YAQOOB
KARACHI Market continued the ascend on Monday after posting the historical gains on Friday, when the market witnessed halt due to 5% cap on index. Market went up by 1026pts during the session and saw profit booking earlier in the session that brought the gains below +300pts. Cement sector again traded mostly on upper circuit and realized high trading volumes. Oil & Gas stocks, with the exception of PSO, saw a dip in prices, primarily on the back of international crude prices. WTI May contract saw a downtrend in price and declined to US$13.27/bbl post closure of PSX market. Banking sector stocks also managed to post gains over last closing. Cement sector contributed the most to the trading volumes by realizing 115.8M shares, followed by Technology (33.4M) and O&GMCs (32M). Among scrips, MLCF topped the volumes with 39.6M shares, followed by FCCL (35.5M) and HASCOL (23M). The Index closed at 33,500pts as against 32,832pts showing an increase of +668pts (+2% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (+220pts), Cement (+183pts), Banks (+97pts), O&GMCs (+43pts) and Power (+40pts). Volumes increased significantly from 302.4mn shares to 399.9mn shares (+32% DoD).
