Market watch: KSE-100 snaps three-day losing streak, gains 340 points

Benchmark index rises 0.98% to settle at 34,995.91

KARACHI: After a three-day bearish spell, the stock market turned bullish on Thursday and finished trading with a significant rise of 340 points as investors cherry-picked stocks.

Positivity in the market was led by news of a modest contraction in the current account deficit.

In its report, Aba Ali Habib Securities stated investors' confidence was boosted following both sides in the lower house of parliament showed signs of flexibility, which may lead to a smooth sailing for the FY20 budget.

A rift between the government and opposition, which impacted trading in the past few days, eased after the National Assembly speaker issued production orders for key opposition leaders, it added.

Next Capital analyst M Faizan stated discounted stock prices across the board encouraged investors to resort to cherry-picking.

Earlier, the market opened on a positive note and rallied throughout the day. Timely dips came but these were corrected soon. Strong investor sentiments, buoyed by improvement in twin deficits, pushed the index closer to the 35,000-point mark.

At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 339.79 points, or 0.98%, to settle at 34,995.91.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated the stock market moved up after sustaining losses for the past three sessions. "The exploration and production sector took cue from rising crude prices and was further helped by the shooting down of a US drone by Iran," it said.

"Besides the positivity in the exploration and production sector, cement stocks also rose on the back of a recent hike in prices of cement bags."

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said equities closed on a positive note with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 340 points, closing at 34,996.

"The bourse kicked off trading on a positive note, touching a high of +405 points and low of -10 points," he said. "The rise in international oil prices should help the index gain momentum in upcoming sessions."

Cement, exploration and production and financial stocks were major movers of the day. Lucky Cement (+1.2%), DG Khan Cement (+4.1%), Pakistan Oilfields (+1.7%), Oil and Gas Development Company (+0.7%), MCB Bank (+1.1%) and HBL (+0.8%) remained in the green.

Overall, trading volumes increased to 163 million shares compared with Wednesday's tally of 99.3 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.5 billion.

Shares of 340 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 225 stocks closed higher, 101 declined and 14 remained unchanged.

Summit Bank was the volume leader with 19.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.01 to close at Rs0.65. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 17.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.04 to close at Rs0.79 and Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 10.4 million shares, losing Rs0.28 to close at Rs11.4.