Bulls maintained their control over the stock market on Tuesday and added 406 points to the benchmark index as investors welcomed the deposit of $505 million by the World Bank with the State Bank of Pakistan.
Market participants cherished the positive news flow and took fresh positions. Banking sector stocks remained attractive throughout the session on anticipation of better-than-expected financial results.
A rapid decline in Covid-19 cases fuelled the rally and aided the market that closed above 38,500 points.
In the morning, the trading kicked off with a sharp spike and the index remained in the green zone for the rest of the day. Towards midday, the market began inching downwards owing to profit-booking in exploration and production, and fertiliser sectors. However, upbeat investor sentiment lifted the market again.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 406.11 points, or 1.06%, to settle at 38,627.27 points.
Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market opened on a positive note with +158 points and posted a total increase of 480 points. It ended the day up by 406 points.
“The banking sector remained in the limelight; the market was further helped by cement, refinery, textile and chemical sectors,” it said. “Profit-taking was largely seen in exploration and production, and fertiliser sectors, however, it did not affect market sentiment.”
Only two sessions were left prior to Eid, however, investors seemed to be optimistic considering the ongoing corporate results season, especially due to banks. UBL is scheduled to announce results on August 5.
The banking sector led the volumes with trading in 60.8 million shares, followed by cement companies (59.6 million) and technology firms (35.6 million), the report added.
JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the index, while continuing Monday’s upward trend, touched intra-day high of 480 points before closing at 38,627, up 406 points.
Traded volumes rose to 394 million shares while traded value increased to $97 million.
Volume leaders of the day were Maple Leaf Cement (+3.5%), The Bank of Punjab (+3%) and Pak Elektron (+0.8%) with cumulative trading in around 76 million shares.
On the news front, the State Bank announced that it had received over $500 million from the World Bank.
The cement sector continued its upward march where Power Cement (+4.6%), Maple Leaf Cement (+3.5%), Lucky Cement (+2.6%), Cherat Cement (+2.8%) and DG Khan Cement (+1.3%) were the major gainers.
The steel sector followed a similar trend where International Industries (+1.5%), International Steels (+6.2%), Mughal Iron and Steel (+3.8%) and Amreli Steels (+5.4%) remained in the green zone.
Investor interest was witnessed in refineries among which National Refinery (+7.5%), Attock Refinery (+6.8%) and Pakistan Refinery (+5.2%) gained ground.
“Moving forward, we recommend investors to book profit and wait for dips for fresh buying. Our top picks are cement, steel and refinery sectors,” the analyst said.
Overall, trading volumes increased to 394.3 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 288.1 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs16.2 billion.
Shares of 392 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 251 stocks closed higher, 122 declined and 19 remained unchanged.
Pak Elektron was the volume leader with 26.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.24 to close at Rs31.03. It was followed by Maple Leaf Cement with 26.2 million shares, gaining Rs1.06 to close at Rs31.77 and The Bank of Punjab with 23.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.28 to close at Rs9.56.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs443.6 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
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