KSE-100 advances past 41,000, but volumes remain low

A day after suffering one of its worst falls of 2022, positivity returned to the bourse amid hope of Pakistan’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) enhanced monitoring list, also called the grey list, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index recorded an improvement of 175 points on Tuesday.

The KSE-100 closed at 41,054.68, a gain of 174.75 points or 0.43%, as investors opted for value hunting in OMC, E&P and cement sectors. However, the value and volume of shares traded declined from the last close.

On Monday, the KSE-100 closed at 40,879.93 – the lowest level since November 27, 2020 – after a fall of 1,134.8 points or 2.7% as investors gauged the impact of new budgetary measures imposed by the government.

Equities initially opened in the negative as market continued its previous declining spree to hit an intra-day low of 40,657, down 222 points. However, recovery was witnessed in the second half of the session, which was led by the banking and energy sector, pushing the index towards its intra-day high of 41,115, a gain of 235 points.

“Positive session was observed at PSX today due to expectations of Pakistan’s exclusion from the grey list of FATF,” said Arif Habib Limited (AHL) in its post-market comment.

Meanwhile, the rupee continued to slip, hitting a new all-time low of Rs205.16 against the US dollar after a decline of Rs1.3or 0.64%.

Sectors driving the benchmark index upward included banking (52.62 points), oil and gas exploration (43.24 points) and oil and gas marketing (32.13 points).

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 120.1 million from 163.8 million on Monday. The value of shares traded declined to Rs3.36 billion from Rs4.35 billion recorded in the previous session.

Unity Foods Ltd was the volume leader with 8.19 million shares, followed by K-Electric Limited with 7.42 million shares, and Hum Network Limited with 7.27 million shares.

Shares of 315 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 163 registered an increase, 128 recorded a fall, and 24 remained unchanged.