Karachi Stock Exchange posts biggest single-day surge in over 5 years

Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) staged a remarkable comeback on Friday after the country's army chief General Raheel Sharif met PTI chief Imran Khan and PAT chairman Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri in a bid to end the over two-week-long political deadlock.
The benchmark KSE 100-Index jumped by 2.86 percent or 793.31 points to 28,567.74 points on Friday when compared with 27,774.43 points recorded on Thursday.
During the week that ended on August 29, the key index gave away 304.01 points as four out of five trading sessions ended in red zone.
The KSE All Share Index augmented by 2.66 percent or 543.59 points to 21,014.45 points, the KSE 30-Index surged by 3.18 percent or 612.4 points to 19,877.88 points, whereas the KMI 30- Index skyrocketed by 2.78 percent or 1,258.64 points to 46,494.76 points.
During Friday's trading session, the key index touched an intraday high of 28,838.11 points when compared with an intraday low of 27,774.43 points.
For the first time in history of Karachi bourse, the benchmark index crossed 1,000 points mark during intraday trade. This is the biggest single-day gain in over five years as across the board rally was seen in all major scrips.
Market volumes improved by 72.344 million shares to 187.806 million shares Friday as against 115.461 million shares posted Thursday, the capitalization gained 173.894 billion rupees (1.738 billion U.S. dollars) to 6.726 trillion rupees (67.269 billion U.S. dollars), whereas the trading value increased by 3.455 billion rupees (34.554 million U.S. dollars) to 9.827 billion rupees (98. 276 million U.S. dollars).
During the week under review, the KSE recorded total volumes of 594.522 million shares at average daily turnovers of 118.904 million shares.
Among 366 active scrips Friday, prices of 289 issues advanced, 54 declined, whereas values of 23 other companies stayed unchanged.
K-Electric Limited, Bank of Punjab and Lafarge Pakistan Limited were the top traded companies with turnovers of 22.589 million shares, 14.540 million shares, and 10.874 million shares, respectively.
Rafhan Maize XD was the top price gainer with increment of 274 rupees (2.74 U.S. dollars) to 10,775 rupees (107.75 U.S. dollars) whereas Exide Pakistan led the major price shedders with decrement of 46.38 rupees (46.38 U.S. cents) to 892.45 rupees (8.92 U.S. dollars).