Stocks remained in the green on Wednesday with the benchmark KSE-100 index jumping over 500 points, following a rally in exploration and production sector stocks and a significant recovery in rupee against the US dollar.
Pakistan's currency appreciated by a notable Rs0.95, or 0.59%, to Rs160.08 against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Tuesday compared to the one-month low hit a day ago.
Stocks rebounded with a vengeance in the last two days, an uptick in global oil prices enticed market participants at the local bourse to renew investments and assume fresh positions. Moreover, bull-run in global equity markets further encouraged investment in local scrips.
The KSE-100 index soared as soon as trading began and maintained uptrend till the end of the session. The trading session also saw the index cross the 40,000-point mark. Index-heavy sectors including banks, textile and fertiliser posted substantial gains.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 514.18 points, or 1.29%, to settle at 40,377.54 points.
Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the exploration and production sector stocks strengthened the market sentiment.
The KSE-100 index closed higher, with Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) and Pakistan Petroleum (PPL) touching an upper circuit at close.
“Crude oil prices increased significantly overnight and maintained the momentum during the trading session, which helped investors particularly concerned with decline in cement dispatches to switch to better alternative,” it said, adding that banks, textile and fertiliser sector stocks also contributed to the positive momentum.
The cement sector, however, continued the downturn and traded below last day’s closing price throughout the entire session.
Sectors contributing to the positive performance included exploration and production (+280 points), banks (+93 points), technology (+78 points), oil and gas marketing companies (+31 points) and fertiliser (+25 points).
Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included Pakistan Petroleum (+93 points), Oil and Gas Development Company (+90 points), Pakistan Oilfields (+68 points), Systems Limited (+41 points) and TRG Pakistan (+34 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively were Hubco (-23 points), Lucky Cement (-17 points), Fauji Cement (-9 points), Engro Fertilizer (-8 points) and Abbott Laboratories (-6 points).
JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said Pakistan Stock Exchange continued to recover as the KSE-100 index hit intraday high of +568 points and closed at 40,378, up 1.3%.
"The bull run can be attributed to a rise in international crude oil prices due to which OGDC(+6.6%), PPL (+7.3%) and POL (+6.2%) from the exploration and production sector closed much higher than their previous day close ," he said.
A total of 242 million shares were traded in the day. Top contributors to the total volume were Unity Foods (+1.7%), TRG Pakistan (+6.2%), Hascol Petroleum (-4.1%), Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim (+2.5%) and Oil and Gas Development Company (+6.6%) with a cumulative 71 million shares changing hands.
Investor's interest was seen in the technology sector where Systems Limited (+7.4%), Netsol (+7.5%), TRG Pakistan (+6.2%) and AVN (+5.4%) closed in the green.
Furthermore National Refinery (+2.2%), Attock Refinery (+2.6%) and Pakistan RefineryL (+3.0%) from the refinery sector enjoyed the upward trend.
"Moving forward, we expect the market to remain bearish due to political uncertainty and global rise in corona cases. Hence, we recommend investors to avail any opportunity to buy on dips and sell on strength," the analyst said.
Overall, trading volumes surged to 241.9 million shares compared with Tuesday's tally of 174.7 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.8 billion.
Shares of 378 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 227 stocks closed higher, 134 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim was the volume leader with 28.6 million shares, losing Rs0.82 to close at Rs5.43. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 21.2 million shares, gaining Rs3.20 to close at Rs55.18 and Unity Foods with 20.8 million shares, losing Rs0.39 to close at Rs23.19.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs385 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
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