Market watch: KSE-100 shoots past 36,000 points

Benchmark index advances 447.28 points to settle at 36,142.17

KARACHI:

Bulls extended their positions at the Pakistan Stock Exchange for the 10th successive session on Thursday and helped the KSE-100 index power past the 36,000-point mark.

The market’s advance was supported by strong investors’ interest, which lifted trading volumes to a seven-month high.

Market participants welcomed the State Bank of Pakistan’s announcement to slash the mark-up rate on two refinance schemes and pinned hopes on further policy rate easing in the monetary policy announcement later this month.

Oil sector stocks came under the limelight on the back of uptrend in international crude prices and attracted substantial investment.

Earlier, trading kicked off on an optimistic note and the index remained positive for the rest of the session. A drop in Covid-19 cases in Pakistan fuelled buying activity, which continued throughout the day.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 447.28 points, or 1.25%, to settle at 36,142.17 points.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market crossed the psychological barrier of 36,000 points with a bang while trading volumes hit a high of 467 million shares for calendar year 2020.

“Banking and oil sectors contributed the most to this surge,” it said. “Though international crude prices did not move much, compared with Wednesday’s levels, investors had a positive view on the stocks in the wake of recent developments such as lowering of interest rates and higher rupee-dollar parity, which are beneficial for exploration and production stocks.”

In the banking sector, HBL, UBL, Bank Alfalah and Meezan Bank were in the limelight.

The technology sector led the volumes with trading in 62.1 million shares, followed by banks (60.7 million) and oil and gas marketing companies (41 million).

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the benchmark KSE-100 index extended its previous gains by 447 points and closed at 36,142. “The market remained bullish throughout the trading session,” he said.

Traded volumes improved 47% day-on-day to 467 million shares while traded value increased to $94 million.

Top traded stocks were Unity Foods (+8.5%), Pak Elektron (+3.9%) and TRG Pakistan (+1.9%) that cumulatively contributed over 119 million shares.

The financial sector continued its upward trend where Bank Alfalah (+5.7%), NBP (+3.8%), HBL (+3.3%) and Meezan Bank (+4.3%) were the major movers.

Crude oil prices edged higher in the international market and as a result, the exploration and production sector gained ground, the analyst said.

Pakistan Petroleum (+2.5%), Pakistan Oilfields (+2.6%) and Oil and Gas Development Company (+1.4%) were the major movers of the sector.

“Moving forward, we expect the market to follow the same trend and our top picks are cement, technology and oil marketing companies’ stocks,” the analyst said.

Overall, trading volumes rose to 467.5 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 317.7 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs15.7 billion.

Shares of 378 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 249 stocks closed higher, 109 declined and 20 remained unchanged.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 40.7 million shares, gaining Re1 to close at Rs12.75. It was followed by Pak Elektron with 39.6 million shares, gaining Rs1.04 to close at Rs28 and TRG Pakistan with 38.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.66 to close at Rs36.31.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs39.7 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.