KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday recovered partially from a significant drop of 1,355 points a day ago with the KSE-100 index gaining 442.27 points or 1.13% to settle at 39,602.87.
The benchmark KSE-100 index recovered its early losses to close at 39,603 on the back of strong buying interest in financial stocks. United Bank Limited (+2.28%), Habib Bank Limited (+2.75%) and MCB Bank (+3.15%) collectively contributed 146 points to the day’s gains.
The CPI for November 2018 rose 6.5% year-on-year, a level which was below street expectations of 7.27% and Elixir Research’s projection of 7.4% for the month.
Overall, trading volumes increased to 195.9 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 164.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs11.2 billion. Shares of 359 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 230 stocks closed higher, 113 declined and 16 remained unchanged.
Maple Leaf Cement was the volume leader with 19.7 million shares, losing Rs2.17 to close at Rs43.84. It was followed by K-Electric with 10.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.12 to close at Rs5.47 and The Bank of Punjab with 9.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.06 to close at Rs13.06.