PSX cheers flood aid pledges worth billions

PSX cheers flood aid pledges worth billions. Stocks on Tuesday rose from the ashes of Monday’s burnout as investors cheered the flood aid pledges received by the government in Geneva donors’ confidence.

Pakistan secured nearly $11 in commitments from international donors, well over a targeted $8 billion, at the one-day International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan, which fired up investor sentiment, resulting in fresh investment.

Lending further support to Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was news reports that Saudi Arabia is considering beefing up its deposits in the State Bank of Pakistan from $3 billion to $5 billion.

Earlier, trading began on a bullish note at the PSX and the KSE-100 climbed steadily till midday. In the final hours, the advance accelerated with the market ending the day with inflated gains.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index rose by 296.75 points, or 0.73%, to settle at 40,801.51.

Read more: PSX loses 157.20 points, closes at 42,190.03 points

Arif Habib Limited, in its post-market commentary, stated that the bulls took charge at the PSX today.

The market opened in the green and traded with positive sentiments throughout the session after the international community pledged $10.7 billion to Pakistan as much-needed aid for rehabilitation, recovery, and reconstruction of the flood-affected areas at an international conference.

“Healthy volumes were recorded across the mainboard, however, the refineries and cement sectors remained in the limelight throughout the day,” the brokerage house noted.

Sectors contributing to the performance included cement (+90 points), technology and communication (+49.7 points), commercial banks (+33.8 points), automobile assembler (+21.2 points), and power generation and distribution (+20.2 points).

Shares of 337 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 231 scrips closed in the green, 82 in the red, and 24 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes rose to 214.34 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 163.93 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.56 billion.

Cnergyico PK Limited was the volume leader with 18.01 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.12 to close at Rs4.03. It was followed by Unity Foods with 17.21 million shares traded, gaining Rs1.04 to close at Rs15.03 and Pakistan Refinery Limited with 14.03 million shares gaining Rs0.36 to close at Rs14.11.