After declining for three successive sessions, the KSE-100 index reversed its trend on Tuesday and gained 177 points in range bound trading.
Investors remained upbeat despite an unimpressive foreign direct investment (FDI) data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) late on Monday, which showed a drop of around 61% in December 2020 on a year-on-year basis.
Owing to overall positivity at the bourse, the automobile sector outshined and notched up handsome gains.
Earlier, trading began with a spike but the index entered the negative territory in early hours. Around noon, a buying spree emerged, which pushed the index closer to 46,000 points.
From there onwards, the KSE-100 index traded in a narrow range with minor ups and downs till the end of the session. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 176.55 points, or 0.39%, to settle at 45,903.23 points.
Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market traded range bound with intraday low and high of -130 points and +251 points respectively. It closed the session up by 177 points. Selling pressure was mainly noted in bank and fertiliser sectors, it said.
During the day, Adviser to Prime Minister on Petroleum Nadeem Babar hinted at removal of a cap on Mari Petroleum’s dividend declaration, which resulted in the stock hitting its upper circuit.
Oil and Gas Development Company, which had shareholding in Mari Petroleum, reacted to the news and performed well, the report stated.
JS Global analyst Danish Ladhani said that the KSE-100 index closed in the green with +177 points at 45,903. Total traded volumes came in at 492 million shares with sideboard stocks being main contributors.
TRG Pakistan (+4.9%), Pakistan Refinery (-1%), Fauji Fertiliser (-2.5%), Unity Foods (+1.3%) and K-Electric (0%) were the volume leaders.
The technology sector contributed 2.4% to the total volumes. TRG Pakistan (+4.9%), WorldCall Telecom (-2.6%), Telecard Limited (+2.8%) and Hum Network (-2.4%) were the major contributors.
Activity was witnessed in the banking sector where Soneri Bank (-0.4%), Silkbank (-0.8%), The Bank of Punjab (-0.8%) and Bank AL Habib (+2.3%) contributed 7% to the market volumes.
“It is recommended to investors to avail themselves of any downside as a stock buying opportunity,” the analyst said.
Overall, trading volumes declined to 491.8 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 543.6 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs19.9 billion.
Shares of 425 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 196 stocks closed higher, 210 declined and 19 remained unchanged.
TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 29.4 million shares, gaining Rs5.07 to close at Rs108.56. It was followed by Pakistan Refinery with 28.8 million shares, losing Rs0.24 to close at Rs23.85 and Fauji Foods with 22.2 million shares, losing Rs0.47 to close at Rs18.64.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs277.4 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
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