Market watch: KSE-100 gains 396 points as bank stocks rally

Benchmark index rises 395.88 points to settle at 40,271.00

KARACHI: The KSE-100 ignored intense scenes in the political arena with investors focusing on economic fundamentals and attractive valuations, carrying the index past the 40,000-point mark and achieving a fourth successive positive finish.

Banking scrips led the rally ahead of the monetary policy announcement where a rate hike is near certain.

Despite the pending arrival of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, trading kicked off on a positive note. The index steadily climbed throughout the day, with bank and automobile stocks leading the charge.

At close, the KSE-100 finished with an increase of 395.88 points or 0.99% to settle at 40,271.00.



JS Global's Maaz Mulla said the bourse closed the week on a positive note.

"The KSE-100 hit an intra-day high of 513 points to finally close in the green. Volumes remained subdued as 125 million shares changed hands during the day. BOP (+5.75%) from the banking sector led the volumes with more than 18 million share exchanging hands," said Mulla. "On the economic front, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported that its reserves fell by $309 million to $9,480 million during the week ended on July 6.

"Banking space led the optimism on the back of news that the monetary policy decision for the next two months will be announced on Saturday with expectations of some surge in the key policy rate.

"As a result, MCB (+5%), UBL (+5%), HBL (+5%), ABL (+4.93%) and BAFL (+4.72%) all closed at or near their respective upper circuits. Mixed sentiments were witnessed in the cement sector, where DGKC (-1.23%), MLCF (-2.58%) and FCCL (-1.84%) closed in the red zone, whereas on the flipside LUCK (+0.42%) closed in the green zone.

"Moving forward, we expect the market to exhibit volatility in the coming sessions due to overall ambiguities in the political environment, and any upside in the market can be considered as an opportunity to sell."



Overall, trading volumes increased to 124.7 million shares compared with Thursday's tally of 108.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.7 billion.

Shares of 339 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 190 stocks closed higher, 128 declined while 21 remained unchanged.

Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 18.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.66 to close at Rs12.14. It was followed by Engro Polymer (R) with 5.5 million shares, losing Rs0.34 to close at Rs5.81 and K-Electric with 5.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.05 to close at Rs5.30.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs251.6 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.