Market watch: Relief rally at PSX as KSE-100 gains 2.5%

Benchmark-100 Index rises 1,113.15 points to end at 45,636.36

KARACHI: Major sectors led the way as stocks rebounded on the back of strong local institutional investor interest, a relief rally coming after a bloodbath in the past couple of weeks.

The index started on a positive note and maintained its momentum to finally breach the 45,000 mark, a whole week after the JIT submitted its report on the Panama case to the Supreme Court.

Volume of shares traded also doubled to 158 million as stock accumulation due to selling pressure in the last few days came into play. Individual investors, however, still remained on the side-lines due to lack of clarity on the political landscape.

At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index finished with an increase of 1,113.15 points, to end at 45,636.36.



Elixir Securities, in its report, said that institutional cherry-picking helped KSE-100 index to surge by as much as 2.5% and settle over 45,600 level.

“Stocks opened on a positive note yet traded lacklustre in the early hours. However, activity in Index names started to pick up as the day progressed on buying interest reportedly from local institutional investors,” the report said.

“All major sectors including financials, cements, oils and fertilisers garnered interest. Major positive contribution to the benchmark Index came from United Bank UBL 3.4%, Lucky Cements 3.4%, Oil & Gas Development Company OGDC 3.4%, Engro Corp 3.3% and Hub Power 2.8%.

“For the Supreme Court, it was again a busy day as it resumed hearing of First family's case and news flow suggested that the outcome on on-going proceedings will likely come sooner than expected.



“Despite today's recovery, we don't expect Index to see any major upside in days ahead as on-going political crisis will continue to keep gains in check,” the report added.

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla echoed a similar sentiment, attributing recovery to attractive valuations of the KSE-100 Index stocks.

“Volumes also improved and stood at 158 million shares as compared to 75 million shares in the previous trading session,” he said.

“TRG (+5%) from the technology sector led the volumes with 11 million shares being traded during the day. UBL (+3.42%), ABL (+2.31%) and MCB (+2.33%) were the major gainers from the commercial banking sector, cumulatively contributing +113 points to the market Index.

“SSGC (+3.85%) from the utilities sector saw significant gains to close in the green zone on back of news that SSGC is set to complete the 24-inch diameter gas pipeline from Shikarpur to Jacobabad in Sindh by the end of next month.

“After weeks of speculation and volatility in the market resulting from events on the political front, market has reached to attractive levels. Many stocks offered at rates lower than their intrinsic values have encouraged investors into stock accumulation.



“We expect market to continue its positive momentum, however we recommend investors to reduce their short term positions on expectations of profit booking at these levels,” he added.

Overall, trading volumes rose to 158 million shares compared with Monday's tally of 75 million.

Shares of 373 companies were traded. At the end of the day, value of 307 stocks closed higher, 56 declined while 10 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9 billion.

TRG Pak was the volume leader with 11.2 million shares, gaining Rs1.79 to close at Rs37.79. It was followed by K-Electric with 8.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.08 to close at Rs6.69 and Aisha Steel Mill with 7.19 million shares, gaining Rs0.59 to close at Rs19.51.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs131 million during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.