Bull-Run on Stock Market as Index Gains 585.45 Points

The assertions of Finance Minister Asad Umar yesterday that the balance of payment crisis Pakistan was feared to face with has ended stirred bull-run on Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday as investors resorted to heavy buying in scrips across the board. The benchmark KSE 100 index closed 585.45 points higher to settle at 41543 points’ level. The market opened in the green and within minutes the index surged over 600 points to 41570 points, which proved to be the highest level of the day’s trading. ALSO READ SECP Registers 1,395 New Companies in October 2018 The market traded in the green throughout the day. On Wednesday, some 169,723,430  shares changed hands at the market. Commenting on the trading, senior analyst and chief executive officer of Arif Habib Corp Ahsan Mehnati said that the stocks turned bullish on Finance Minister affirmation over aversion of the imminent balance of payment crisis after Chinese commitments and $6bn Saudi Arabia bailout package. He said that the trade remained high amid investors’ interest in scrips across the board on likely implementation of reforms to avert fiscal and external imbalances supporting credit profiles. Moody’s report on the stable outlook for Pakistan, investor speculations amid IMF team visit for bailout talks to deal with economic crisis played a catalyst role in bullish close at PSX, he opined. ALSO READ Pakistan Foreign Exchange Reserves Decrease Further by $48 Million Trading held in the shares of 375 companies on Wednesday. Out of these, shares prices of 284 companies increased while share prices of 75 companies fell. The shares prices of 16 companies remained unchanged. Wyeth Pal Ltd was the biggest gainer in term of per share gain followed by Lucky Cement. The share price of Wyeth Pak Ltd surged by Rs 60 per share to close at Rs 1260 while the share price of Lucky Cement increased by Rs 22.85 to close at Rs494.37. Pak Tobacco remained the biggest loser in term of per share loss followed by Khyber Tobacco. The share prices of Pak Tobacco decreased by Rs 105.31 per share to close at Rs2194.19 while the share price of Khyber Tobacco fell by Rs30 to close at Rs570.