PSX surges above 41,000 level as buyers rally

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed strong bullish surge on Monday as the index gained 897 points to close at 41,454 on positive news of Saudi bailout and upcoming China’s visit by PM Khan.

The day’s lowest point for the index remained at its opening level of 40,556, and it marked a high just slightly above the day’s close at 41,514.

“Today’s total market participation of 460 million shares was highest since May 24, 2017, while traded value of $117m [Rs15.8 billion] was highest since January 24, 2018,” Elixir Securities said in a note sent to investors.

According to JS Research, the index has risen by 3,739 points (10pc) in the last four sessions alone.

“Investor sentiments remained bullish today ahead of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to China (expected by the end of this week) for another support package,” reported Topline Securities.

“Moreover, weekend news that Pakistan has asked UAE to provide deferred payment facility for oil import (a package of up to $6 billion as per media outlets) kept the momentum high.

“In the last four trading sessions, the market has gained 9.6pc, which is nearly a 9-Year consecutive 4 session high (in percentage terms),” the note concluded.

Of the 393 scrips traded in the day, 250 closed positive, 128 declined and 15 closed unchanged.

The day’s top symbols by volume were Bank of Punjab (up 7.92pc with 63.4m shares traded), K-Electric (up 4.67pc with 44.1m shares traded), Lotte Chemical (down 1.31pc with 35.4m shares traded), Power Cement (up 10.77pc with 24.8m shares traded) and Engro Polymer (up 4.98pc with 21.8m shares traded).

Commercial bank scrips saw the most trading activity (80.3m shares traded), followed closely by chemicals scrips (79.1m shares traded). Cements, power gen and engineering scrips rounded off the top three sectors by trading activity.