Market watch: Bulls maintain hold, lift KSE-100 by 329 points

Benchmark index rises 0.76% to settle at 43,416.77

KARACHI:

Investors’ sentiment remained bullish at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday as the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 329 points ahead of a long weekend.

During the session, the country achieved the milestone of $200 million worth of inflows into Roshan Digital Accounts and the news mainly fueled the market’s uptrend. On the back of investor optimism, index-heavy automobile, cement and financial sectors closed with handsome gains.

Foreign institutional investors, however, divested over Rs2 billion worth of shares, thus capping gains.

Earlier, trading began with a jump and the KSE-100 index managed to climb over 500 points in initial hours. However, profit-taking by market participants erased some of the gains but encouraging progress on the Roshan Digital Account initiative helped the index end the day on a positive note.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 329.07 points, or 0.76%, to settle at 43,416.77 points.

A report of Arif Habib Limited stated that the last day of rollover week ended with fanfare, adding a total of 544 points during the session and ending with a rise of 329 points.

On a weekly basis, the KSE-100 index gained 450 points after losing 1,200 points in first two sessions of the week.

An overnight jump in international crude oil prices helped exploration and production stocks make a decent recovery, however, profit-booking kept the price increase in check.

The cement sector performed comparatively better on the back of healthy cement dispatches, which was aided by consistent buying interest in banking sector stocks from local investors, the report said.

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the benchmark KSE-100 index closed positive by 329 points, after hitting a high of +544 points. It ended trading at 43,417.

The market remained bullish with cement being the major sector where Cherat Cement (+7.3%), Pioneer Cement (+6.6%), Gharibwal Cement (+4.9%) and Lucky Cement (+3.6%) touched the upper circuit.

Moreover, oil prices in the international market gained ground, showing signs of recovery in global markets. Oil and Gas Development Company (+0.7%) and Pakistan Petroleum (+0.6%) were in the green zone.

Top contributors to total volumes were Unity Foods (+6.6%), TRG Pakistan (+7.5%), Maple Leaf Cement (+3.4%), Azgard Nine (0%), Pakistan Refinery (+2.1%), Power Cement (+4.5%) and Fauji Cement (+2.6%), with a total of 198 million shares changing hands.

Moreover, HBL (+0.1%), Lucky Cement (+3.6%), MCB (+0.4%), Hubco (+0.6%), Oil and Gas Development Company (+0.7%) and UBL (+0.9%) were the top movers.

“Moving forward, we expect the market to remain bullish and recommend investors to buy on dips,” the analyst added.

Overall, trading volumes soared to 570.6 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 378.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs25.5 billion.

Shares of 402 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 232 stocks closed higher, 150 declined and 20 remained unchanged.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 46.9 million shares, gaining Rs1.76 to close at Rs28.51. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 37.3 million shares, gaining Rs5.47 to close at Rs78.42 and Maple Leaf Cement with 34.7 million shares, gaining Rs1.44 to close at Rs43.38.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs2.1 billion worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.