Market watch: Bulls take control as KSE-100 rises 332 points

Benchmark index increases 0.72% to settle at 46,580.34

KARACHI:

Bulls once again wrestled back control of Pakistan Stock Exchange as the benchmark KSE-100 index rose 332 points on Tuesday and erased the losses suffered a day earlier.

Buoyed by an uptick in international crude prices, both oil-related sectors at the Pakistan bourse were in the limelight and ended the day with modest gains.

On the other hand, chemical, refinery and financial sectors attracted selling by investors that capped gains.

Earlier, trading began with a spike and the KSE-100 index remained in the green throughout the day. Near midday, the uptrend accelerated which pushed the market further up. In final hours of the session, the market flattened with range bound activity.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 331.89 points, or 0.72%, to settle at 46,580.34 points.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, said signing of an independent power producers’ (IPPs) agreement by Hubco motivated investors to take positions in PSO and Hubco, resulting in Hubco driving the market with an overall increase of 394 points during the session.

Similarly, with the overnight increase of 3.5% in crude oil prices, the exploration and production sector reacted and contributed to the upsurge in KSE-100 index.

PSO touched a new high on the back of a deal with the IPPs, which opened the door to the resolution of circular debt issue for oil and gas marketing companies.

Stocks of banking, refinery and cement sectors faced profit-booking, which led the index to close with a net rise of 332 points, the report said.

JS Global analyst Danish Ladhani said the KSE-100 index remained positive throughout the trading session, touching a high of +394 points and closing up by 332 points at 46,580.

Around 468 million shares were traded with the highest contribution coming from Hascol Petroleum (-6.7%), K-Electric (-0.7%), Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (0%) and Pakistan Refinery (-2.4%).

As per news reports, the federal government decided to increase power tariff by Rs1.95 per kilowatt-hour for consumers of K-Electric aimed at maintaining a uniform tariff across the country. Consequently, K-Electric (-0.7%) contributed 7% to the total traded volume.

Refineries saw selling pressure as Pakistan Refinery (-2.4%), Attock Refinery (-0.9%), Byco (-2.2%) and National Refinery (-0.6%) closed in the red.

Activity of two million shares was witnessed in AGP Limited (+2%), which was officially authorised to import and introduce Covid-19 vaccine 'Sputnik V' in Pakistan.

On the other hand, exploration and production and oil marketing companies gained ground. Pakistan Petroleum (+1.7%), Oil and Gas Development Company (+2.5%), PSO (+5.6%) and Shell (+1.6%) remained in the green.

“As the trend goes, we recommend investors to avail themselves of any upside as an opportunity to sell stocks,” the analyst said.

Overall, trading volumes dropped to 468.1 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 693.6 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs23.3 billion.

Shares of 429 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 209 stocks closed higher, 202 declined and 18 remained unchanged.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 44 million shares, losing Rs0.91 to close at Rs12.69. It was followed by K-Electric with 34.2 million shares, losing Rs0.03 to close at Rs4.49 and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal with 22.6 million shares, closing unchanged at Rs13.47.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs13.57 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.