The stock market PSX once again had a volatile session on Friday and the benchmark index oscillated between red and green zones before ending the week higher by around 300 points.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to China seemed to have strengthened investor’s sentiments due to anticipated good news about financial support during the trip.
Earlier, trading started on a negative note, but a buying spree emerged shortly afterwards, helping the PSX index gain close to 300 points in the first half.
Volatility intensified in the second half due to political uncertainty in the wake of protests across the country, which made the index rise and fall multiple times. It closed the day slightly above the 42,000-point mark.
The exploration and production (E&P) sector bore the brunt of volatility and remained in the red. However, all other major sectors including automobile, cement and financial notched up gains.
At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 287.99 points or 0.69% to settle at 42,004.09.
Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the stock market went through various phases of excitement during the day, touching a low of -109 points and a high of +528 points.
“In between, volumes jumped significantly in Oil and Gas Development Company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), Maple Leaf Cement, DG Khan Cement, The Bank of Punjab and TRG Pakistan,” it added.
A couple of new triggers were political uncertainty on the negative side in the first session, which had little impact on the index, and expected announcement of a Chinese financial package of at least $6 billion, which resulted in a 200-point jump in a matter of a few minutes.
However, it was met with equal resistance through stock selling which pushed the index from a high of 528 points to -20 points in a span of just 30 minutes.
Stocks that contributed positively included UBL (+57 points), HBL (+42 points) and Lucky Cement (+30 points).
Shares that contributed negatively were PPL (-59 points), Mari Petroleum (-31 points) and Pakistan Oilfields (-23 points).
