Stocks stage handsome rally

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bullish trend and closed on strong positive note on the back of healthy buying mainly by local investors.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index increased by 377.82 points or 0.85 percent and closed at 44,585.13 points. The index hit 44,601.78 points intraday high and 44,260.11 points intraday low.

Trading activity also improved significantly as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 440.221 million shares as compared to 247.993 million shares traded last Friday. Daily traded value increased to Rs 12.086 billion against previous session’s Rs 8.512 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 35.84 points or 0.8 percent to close at 4,492.76 points with total daily turnover of 365.275 million shares.

BRIndex30 added 89.06 points or 0.57 percent to close at 15,675.49 points with total daily trading volumes of 232.583 million shares. Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $85,544. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 62 billion to Rs 6.756 trillion. Out of total 342 active scrips, 238 closed in positive and only 82 in negative while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 28.194 million shares and closed at Rs 1.26, up Rs 0.01 followed by JS Bank (R ) that gained Rs 0.21 to close at Rs 0.22 with 27.939 million shares. Unity Foods increased by Rs 1.06 and closed at Rs 20.18 with 20.659 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and Rafhan Maize were the top gainers increasing by Rs 220.00 and Rs 65.00 respectively to close at Rs 6675.00 and Rs 8355.00 while Shield Corp and Siemens Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 24.37 and Rs 22.80 respectively to close at Rs 300.53 and Rs 716.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said refineries continued to lead the KSE-100 and remain the standout sector for July (MTD: NRL up 38.45 percent, ATRL up 24.40 percent and PRL up 19.91 percent). Also interesting to see over the last few weeks have been the underperforming Auto names trade below and then back above their respective COVID lows (HCAR, PSMC, GHNI) strongly indicating that even the weakest PSX sector has put in a major bottom GHNI, HCAR, PSMC, and SAZEW all limit up (up 7.5 percent)

BR Automobile Assembler Index surged by 113.83 points or 1.37 percent to close at 8,428.43 points with total turnover of 9.172 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 19.0 points or 0.39 percent to close at 4,914.21 points with 21.225 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 111.59 points or 1.21 percent to close at 9,347.83 points with 27.928 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 2.55 points or 0.03 percent to close at 8,187.34 points with 9.982 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index added 15.46 points or 0.38 percent to close at 4,082.51 points with 37.528 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,140.39 points, up 27.42 points or 0.67 percent with 76.485 million shares.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said bulls remained in the driving seat, taking the KSE-100 Index to 44,585 level with a gain of 378 points.

Refinery and Steel sectors continued their uptrend, while HCAR, PSMC, and SAZEW from the Auto sector closed limit up. Market turnover increased to 440 million shares where WTL (up 0.8 percent), UNITY (up 5.5 percent), TPLP (up 3.5 percent), PAEL (up 9.3 percent) and PRL (up 2.5 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023