Market watch: Bulls dominate as allies assure Pakistan of financial assistance

Benchmark index increases 434.58 points to settle at 41,428.63

KARACHI: Bulls dominated the stock market on Thursday as investors rejoiced over the news of Saudi Arabia releasing agreed financial assistance in upcoming days. The index rallied and gained more than 480 points in intra-day trading, finishing the day in the black.

The KSE-100 index opened on a positive note and continued its journey towards the north, driven by buying interest from investors. Sentiments were further buoyed by the Chinese assurance that a financial package was currently being worked out to ease Pakistan's external-sector challenges.

Chinese Embassy Deputy Head of Mission Zhao Lijian said the Chinese package would be bigger than that of Saudi Arabia in terms of financial grant.

At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 434.58 points or 1.06% to settle at 41,428.63.

Elixir Securities' analyst Murtaza Jafar said the KSE-100 index moved higher, settling at 41,429 points.



"The market traded positive for most part of the day as renewed buying interest in United Bank Limited (+5%) and Habib Bank Limited (+4.9%) kept the buying momentum going for the day," Jafar said.

"Investors cheered the decline in international coal prices to $90.70 per ton as active buying was witnessed in Cherat Cement Company (+5%) and Pioneer Cement (+5%) while Lucky Cement (+3%) also managed to shine amongst top performers."

On the corporate front, Ghandhara Nissan Limited (+5%) notified the stock exchange of the launch of completely knocked down (CKD) models of Renault trucks in Pakistan to capture growing transportation demand on the back of CPEC projects.

"Going forward, we expect the market to face resistance around 42,300 levels," he said.



Overall, trading volumes decreased to 254.9 million shares compared with Wednesday's tally of 255.17 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs11 billion.

Shares of 387 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 250 stocks closed higher, 121 declined and 16 remained unchanged.

Lotte Chemical XD was the volume leader with 28.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.31 to close at Rs19.81. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 17.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.37 to close at Rs30.77 and Pak Elektron with 17.3 million shares, gaining Rs1.28 to close at Rs33.31.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs357.3 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.