Turnaround: KSE-100 gains over 1,000 points on value-hunting

After two days of heavy selling pressure, the KSE-100 gained on value-hunting as investors cherry-picked holdings, pushing the benchmark index beyond the 65,000 level with a gain of over 1,000 points on Thursday.

The KSE-100 had been under pressure this week, falling over 1,700 points over Tuesday and Wednesday, a decline that spurred buying interest during the session today.

At close on Thursday, the benchmark index settled at 65,064.26 after an increase of 1,015.82 points or 1.59%.

Buying interest was mostly seen in auto and refineries with cement and food sectors also in the limelight.

In a key development, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team and Pakistani authorities were set to begin discussion on the second review of the $3 billion Stand-by Arrangement (SBA) from today.

Meanwhile, the rupee saw marginal improvement against the US dollar, appreciating 2 paisa in the inter-bank market on Thursday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.77, up by 0.007% as compared to the Wednesday’s close of 278.79 against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 315.24 million from Rs252.75 million a session ago.

The value of shares improved to Rs10.48 billion from Rs9.24 billion in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 42.74 million shares, followed by Cnergyico PK with 36.11 million shares, and Kohinoor Spinning with 19.58 million shares.

Shares of 336 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 248 registered an increase, 72 recorded a fall, while 16 remained unchanged.