Market watch: Bulls help KSE-100 soar past 39,000 points

Benchmark index rises 422.17 points to settle at 39,258.44

KARACHI:

The bullish spell continued at Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday as the KSE-100 index advanced 422 points and breached the 39,000-point barrier owing to strong investor sentiment.

Encouraging headlines about the National Assembly passing Financial Action Task Force (FATF) compliance-related bills improved investors’ mood and aided the benchmark index which closed positive for the fifth consecutive session.

Investors took cue from a drastic drop in Covid-19 cases across the country, which indicated that economic activities would normalise over the coming days. Index-heavy sectors such as banking, cement and oil marketing generated buying activity and closed the day with modest gains.

Earlier, trading kicked off on a positive note, however, all gains were erased in the early hours, pushing the index into the red zone. After trading in the negative territory for a brief period, the market saw a buying spree and rallied for the rest of the day.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 422.17 points, or 1.09%, to settle at 39,258.44 points.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market opened on a positive note with +97 points on the last trading day before a long weekend.

Power, banking, cement, pharmaceutical, oil marketing and refinery sectors helped the index post a total increase of 434 points and close near the session’s high.

The Privatisation Commission’s deliberations on divesting government shares in Oil and Gas Development Company and Pakistan Petroleum Limited brought the two stocks down. However, despite the price fall and high volumes, the index did not reflect them.

The technology sector topped the volumes with trading in 57.7 million shares, followed by cement firms (47.5 million) and transport companies (43.8 million), the report said.

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the market was up and running and closed in the green for the fifth consecutive day.

The benchmark index touched intra-day high of +434 points and closed at 39,258, up 422 points. The traded value stood lower by 19% at $102 million and volumes came in at 369 million shares, down 27%.

Engro Fertilisers (+2.4%) declared its half-year result, where the company posted earnings per share of Rs3.34 and cash payout of Rs4 per share.

The cement sector continued its upward march where Pioneer Cement (+3.6%), Fauji Cement (+2.6%), Cherat Cement (+2.6%), Gharibwal Cement (+1.5%) and Lucky Cement (+2.2%) gained ground.

Investor interest was witnessed in pharmaceutical and technology sectors where Searle (+6.9%), Ferozsons Laboratories (+3.4%), GlaxoSmithKline (+1.7%), AGP Limited (+1.3%), TRG Pakistan (+6%) and Avanceon Limited (+3.9%) moved up.

“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 decreased to 368.7 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 508.3 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs17.1 billion.

Shares of 397 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 239 stocks closed higher, 137 declined and 21 remained unchanged.

Pakistan International Bulk Terminal was the volume leader with 43.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.62 to close at Rs11.25. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 27.9 million shares, gaining Rs2.7 to close at Rs47.5 and Pak Elektron with 18.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.02 to close at Rs32.1.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs286.9 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.