Market watch: KSE-100 extends gains on back of political clarity

Benchmark index increases 303.61 points to settle at 42,808.66

KARACHI: As more clarity emerged on the political scene, the stock market continued to march upwards on Monday after investors picked selective stocks in cement, financial and chemical sectors.

With post-election developments unfolding and Imran Khan being officially declared as nominee for the position of prime minister, the KSE-100 index maintained its growth momentum.

Earlier, the index opened on a positive note, but dipped soon after. However, the trend reversed as investor interest drove the market up.

At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 303.61 points or 0.71% to settle at 42,808.66.



Elixir Securities' analyst Murtaza Jafar said equities closed positive with the benchmark KSE-100 index settling above 42,800.

"The market opened sideways, however, later select names across chemical, cement and financial sectors pushed the KSE-100 index up," he said.

Engro Corp (+2.5%), Lucky Cement (+2.6%) and Dawood Hercules (+3.1%) stood out as top contributors to the benchmark index, cumulatively adding 117 points.

However, amidst lack of news flow and absence of any meaningful corporate result announcements during the day, the wider market activity was below par as only $54 million worth of shares changed hands on the KSE All-share Index while on the KSE-100 index 77 million shares were traded, the lowest activity in almost two weeks.

"[We] expect the market to closely track news flow regarding nominations for key positions for the upcoming PTI government that will help investor sentiments," Jafar added.



Overall, trading volumes decreased to 153.8 million shares compared with Friday's tally of 203 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.7 billion.

Shares of 375 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 206 stocks closed higher, 160 declined while nine remained unchanged.

Trust Investment Bank was the volume leader with 11.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.29 to close at Rs2.70. It was followed by Pak Elektron with 10 million shares, gaining Rs1.10 to close at Rs40.62 and Unity Foods with 7.9 million shares, losing Rs0.27 to close at Rs33.56.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs305 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.