The government’s drive to reduce its deficit via dividend declaration by PPL fuelled the stock’s performance and kept local investors satisfied. The market driven by the PPL’s likely dividend announcement before completion of fiscal year attracted ample interest towards the stock. Aside from the fact that penny stocks continued to generate strong interest, while Engro was battling hard to sustain ground but lost the battle after prolonged gas curtailment hurt production of the new plant.
Fertiliser stocks maintained their share prices; the banks’ performance was relatively muted while OGDC witnessed an upsurge as well. The KSE 100 index closed at 12,369.12 with a gain of 51.97 points and total volume stood at 26,528,106 along with the total value of 2,223,540,083. With result season getting closer we may receive a number of such news tidbits which may change the market sentiment going forward said Bilal Asif at HMFS.
Announcement of board meeting by PPL for special dividend certainly prevented the local bourse from sinking, speculative buying that was duly followed by short covering and change of hands in the stock had a positive impact on value of traded shares. Although the gains registered were much higher than the expected payout, the activity did inspire other stocks of the sector.
