The Pakistan Stock Exchange staged a smart rally on Thursday as investors anticipated an extension in Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s tenure following a controversy over the issue.
The rally helped lift the market to an eight-month high. At the end of trading, the Supreme Court approved a conditional extension in the army chief’s tenure for six months.
Earlier, trading kicked off on a positive note and the uptrend continued for the rest of the day. In the early hours, however, investor sentiment weakened slightly as political uncertainty took its toll.
As the day progressed, clarity started to emerge on the matter, sparking a rally, which helped the market close above the 38,700-point mark.
At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 583.55 points, or 1.53%, to settle at 38,706.27.
“The market opened on a positive note and reached +724 points. Activity was seen across the board with major activity in cement and bank stocks.
Profit-booking was also witnessed, which brought the index down to +584 points by the close.
The auto sector had generally been rallying on the back of Auto Industry Development Policy where shares were seen hitting their upper circuits in Thursday’s session.
The cement sector led the volumes with trading in 48.8 million shares, followed by banks (40 million) and engineering companies (36.5 million).
Among individual stocks, Unity Foods again topped the chart with 20.4 million shares changing hands, followed by Pak Elektron (19.7 million) and TRG Pakistan (15.8 million), the report added.
Overall, trading volumes increased to 348.5 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 228.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs12.1 billion.