A day after a bearish close, the bourse turned bullish on Tuesday, however, trading remained lacklustre despite a host of positive triggers.
A rally in global markets, triggered by upbeat news about another Covid-19 vaccine, failed to fully reflect at the Pakistan Stock Exchange and resultantly, the KSE-100 index closed higher by a modest 148 points.
American firm Moderna claimed that its Covid-19 vaccine was 94.5% effective in clinical trials, which drove bullish sentiment in the international equity markets.
In addition, encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI) data, which climbed to a 10-month high of $317.4 million in October, also failed to entice investors to build fresh positions in a big way.
Overall, investors were optimistic but trading remained subdued, which was reflected in thin volumes. Expectations of monetary policy announcement early next week played on investors’ mind and they remained cautious.
Earlier, trading kicked off on a positive note and the KSE-100 index climbed nearly 500 points in early hours. However, the optimism faded as the session progressed and most of the gains were erased. Nevertheless, the investors maintained the buying momentum, helping the index close with modest gains.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 147.92 points, or 0.37%, to settle at 40,652.67 points.
Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market traded in the positive zone for the entire session. However, the activity remained lacklustre for a lack of clear triggers for the market.
“The State Bank of Pakistan is expected to announce monetary policy in the coming week, which gives investors a reason to switch portfolio positions as per their views on the policy rate. Banking sector stocks, especially UBL and MCB, stole the limelight,” it said.
The exploration and production sector faced selling pressure after making strides earlier in the session, which followed the climb in international crude oil prices.
Volumes remained thin, where none of the top volume leaders could cross 10 million shares, it said.
JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said bears were defeated and the market closed in the green zone. The benchmark KSE-100 index opened positive and touched a high of +459 points.
The market remained in the green throughout the day and closed at 40,653 (+148 points). Overall volumes stood at 150 million shares, while traded value came in at $40 million.
TRG Pakistan (+0.3%), BankIslami (-1.1%), Summit Bank (+1.1%), Pakistan Refinery (+1%) and Unity Foods (+1.4%) cumulatively contributed more than 43 million shares to the total volumes.
The index moved in the positive direction on the back of news that Moderna company’s experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing Covid-19 based on interim data from a late-stage trial.
Searle (+1.8%), Ferozsons Laboratories (+0.9%), IBL HealthCare (+1.6%) and AGP Limited (+0.8%) moved higher during the trading session.
Investors’ interest was witnessed in the banking sector as well where UBL (+3.9%), MCB (+0.6%), HBL (+0.4%) and Bank Alfalah (+1.8%) gained ground.
Oil stocks recovered from their recent lows with crude oil prices edging higher in the international market. Pakistan Oilfields (+2.1%) and Pakistan Petroleum (+1.5%) were major gainers of the sector.
“We expect the market to remain bearish due to political uncertainty and increasing corona cases globally. Hence, we recommend investors to avail themselves of any opportunity to buy on dips,” the analyst said.
Overall, trading volumes fell to 150.3 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 181.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.3 billion.
Shares of 381 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 218 stocks closed higher, 142 declined and 21 remained unchanged.
TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 9.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.14 to close at Rs52.6. It was followed by BankIslami with 8.8 million shares, losing Rs0.11 to close at Rs9.99 and Soneri Bank with 8.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.11 to close at Rs9.97.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs310.9 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ