After a 282.03 points loss on the previous day, the KSE-100 Index was up by 213.03 points as the share prices of 166 companies made gains and of 102 declined during Friday’s session which did not see any major fluctuations.

A total of 53,698,321 shares were traded during the session which saw the KSE-100 Index closing at 34,350.42.

Maple Leaf Cement was the most active stock as 6,651,500 shares of the company were traded, which also saw Rs0.64 [2.53 percent] increase in the share price. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui & Company Ltd (JSCL) 5,206,500 shares and TRG with 4,351,500 shares.

On the other hand, the share price of SIBL (Security Investment Bank Limited) was up by 15.50 percent [Rs7.23], making it the best performer in terms of gains. The second was HUMNL (HUM Network Ltd) with 9.75 percent [Rs1] followed by SHNI (Shaheen Insurance Company Ltd) with 9.67 percent [Rs0.27].

As far as the worst performers are concerned, the share price of SERF [Service Fabrics Limited] was down by 8.63 percent [Rs0.27], REDCO [Redco Textile Limited] by 8.18 percent [Rs0.54] and SCL [Shield Corporation Limited] by 7.49 percent [Rs19.03].

It was very poor session again for the automobile sector as every company barring Indus Motors and Sazgar Engineering suffered loses. However, it was totally opposite in the case of cement where only companies saw their share prices going down.

Meanwhile, the chemical sector also witnessed a good session after many days the share price of DYNEZ Pak increased by Rs6.36 followed by Rs1.63 of Bifo Industries Ltd.  

The overall good performance by the engineering sector was led by Amreli Steels whose 237,500 shares were traded with a gain of Rs0.17 in share price.

However, the best performing sector was the pharmaceutical companies as all the 10 companies saw their shares going up. The Searle Company Ltd was the best of these in terms of volume as 1,840,100 shares of the company were shared, while the share price of Abbott Laboratories gained Rs24.66.  

A cursory look at the market’s performance during the current year shows that the KSE-100 Index had closed the year 2019 on December 31 at 40,735.08. By Jan 10, it reached the level of 43,207.05 but then started plummeting as slid to 27,228.80 on March 25, which represented a loss of 13,506.28 points within two-and-a-half months.

But since, the market has made some recovery but not without some serious hiccups as the index currently stands at 34,350.42. However, full recovery isn’t in sight with very little economic activity, weak rupee, high inflation and reduced purchasing power of consumers.

Earlier this week, the State Bank of Pakistan in a report had warned about further devaluation of rupee, reduced growth and more joblessness amid the current situation.