Stocks snap meltdown

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a bullish trend on the back of healthy buying at available attractive, low levels.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 495.44 points or 1.26 percent and closed at 39,838.33 points. The index hit 39,928.42 points intraday high and 39,325.78 points intraday low.

Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 194.531 million shares as compared to 166.000 million shares traded Wednesday. Daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 5.486 billion against previous session’s Rs 4.052 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 65.03 points or 1.68 percent to close at 3,939.05 points with total daily turnover of 161.132 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 306.3 points or 2.24 percent to close at 13,967.96 points with total daily trading volumes of 117.076 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $28,438. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 66 billion to Rs 6.362 trillion. Out of total 329 active scrips, 238 closed in positive and only 79 in negative while the value of 12 stocks remained unchanged.

Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 17.409 million shares and closed at Rs 3.85, down Rs 0.01 followed by Pak Refinery that gained Rs 0.27 to close at Rs 13.23 with 13.016 million shares. TPL Properties increased by Rs 0.69 to close at Rs 17.75 with 10.100 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Bata Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 156.00 and Rs 83.00 respectively to close at Rs 7911.00 and Rs 1725.00 while Nestle Pakistan and Mehmood Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 99.90 and Rs 66.25 respectively to close at Rs 5250.10 and Rs 817.17.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said a positive session was witnessed at the PSX. The Index was driven by the bulls throughout the day which shows signs of recovery after Wednesday’s sharp decline. Investors’ sentiments were improved due to the Super Tax reversal by Sindh High Court which has been declared ultra vires to the constitution. Investor participation remained active throughout the day, healthy volumes were observed on the main board although 3rd tier stocks witnessed the most activity today as well.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (up 92.3 points), Commercial Banks (up 64.4 points), Technology & Communication (up 64.3 points), Chemical (up 43.5 points) and Cement (up 40.9 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 80.8 points or 1.1 percent to close at 7,403.90 points with total turnover of 6.589 million shares.

BR Cement Index added 51.41 points or 1.36 percent to close at 3,833.67 points with 7.922 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 64.83 points or 0.82 percent to close at 7,981.58 points with 10.092 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 6,257.18 points, up 84.35 points or 1.37 percent with 9.016 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index surged by 83.47 points or 2.35 percent to close at 3,637.33 points with 23.710 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 87.81 points or 2.04 percent to close at 4,390.76 points with 43.994 million shares.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that buying was witnessed in companies affected by circular debt as government formed a committee on circular debt settlement for gas sector.

As a result, PPL (up 5.6 percent), OGDCL (up 3.6 percent) and PSO (up 4.4 percent) led the market rally and the index gained 495 points to close at 39,838.

Market turnover also improved and the 100 index volumes clocked in at 86 million shares. CNERGY (down 0.3 percent), PRL (up 2.1 percent), TPLP (up 4.0 percent), WTL (up 3.4 percent) and HASCOL (up 12 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022