Market watch: Bourse turns bullish, gains 585 points

Benchmark index increases 1.43% to settle at 41,543.98

KARACHI: The KSE-100 index beat expectations on Wednesday as a bullish spree dominated trading throughout the day which helped the market partially recover the losses borne over the past two days.

The assurance of financial assistance by China, as announced by Finance Minister Asad Umar, aided investor sentiments and sparked stock buying.

The session kicked off on a positive note and the index skyrocketed reaching close to the 41,600-point mark in the initial hour. Uncertainty soon prevailed, dragging the index down, but still the bourse managed to end the day with nearly 600-point gain.

At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 585.45 points or 1.43% to settle at 41,543.98.



Elixir Securities' analyst Murtaza Jafar said the benchmark index moved higher with aggressive buying in the construction and material sector as investors cheered the finance minister's comments about Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to China where, according to Umar, the premier secured an economic package.

"Lucky Cement (+4.56%), DG Khan Cement (+5%) and Pioneer Cement (+5%) were star performers of the day," he said. "The Bank of Punjab (+5.14%) and Lotte Chemical (+5.59%) were the volume leaders with cumulative turnover of 56 million shares."

"Moving forward, investors are expected to follow developments in negotiations with an IMF delegation on a financial programme," the analyst added.



Overall, trading volumes increased to 276.9 million shares compared with Tuesday's tally of 230.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs11 billion.

Shares of 375 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 284 stocks closed higher, 75 declined and 16 remained unchanged.

The Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 35 million shares, gaining Rs0.71 to close at Rs13.35. It was followed by Lotte Chemical with 21.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.97 to close at Rs18.86 and Pak Elektron with 16 million shares, gaining Rs0.1 to close at Rs31.88.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs329.6 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.