KARACHI:
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) staged a rebound on Thursday and went north because of overall optimism in the wake of upcoming corporate earnings season.
Investor expectations about strong quarterly financial results and subsiding political uncertainty left a positive impact on activity at the bourse.
Cement and steel stocks were in the limelight during the trading session and both sectors managed to close the session entirely in the positive zone.
Earlier, trading began on a positive note and the KSE-100 index remained on the uptrend throughout the session. A buying spree, emerging in final hours, elevated the gains.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 787.78 points, or 1.79%, to settle at 44,741.36 points.
“Stocks surged on expectations of strong corporate earnings, particularly in the cement sector,” Pak-Kuwait Investment Company Head of Research Samiullah Tariq told The Express Tribune.
“The market’s advance was further supported by the spillover effect of a drop in fixed income yields,” he added. “Cement, steel and technology sectors performed well during the session.”
Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that post-foreign selling and a loss of 451 points a day ago, the KSE-100 index rebounded with a gain of 806 points in intra-day trading on Thursday.
Cement and steel sectors remained buoyant, where investors were optimistic about the upcoming quarterly results. Tech stocks added to the momentum and touched their upper circuit by the end of the session. UBL also recorded a healthy price growth.
Buying activity was witnessed across the board but investors remained cautious, the report added.
Sectors contributing to the performance included banks (+135 points), technology (+121 points), cement (+118 points), fertiliser (+59 points) and exploration and production (+55 points).
Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included TRG Pakistan (+111 points), Lucky Cement (+50 points), Dawood Hercules (+43 points), Engro Corporation (+37 points) and HBL (+35 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively were Abbott Laboratories (-4 points), Indus Motor (-4 points), IGI Holdings (-2 points), Shifa Hospitals (-1 point) and Byco Petroleum (-1 point).
JS Global analyst Danish Ladhani said that the KSE-100 index closed on a positive note at 44,741, up 788 points after touching intra-day high of +806 points.
Total traded volume for the day was 383 million shares, where top contributors were Ghani Global Holdings (+7.2%), TRG Pakistan (+7.5%), Byco Petroleum (-0.7%), Lotte Chemical (+2.8%), Pakistan Refinery (-0.3%) and Telecard Limited (+11%).
Cement, banking and tech stocks were the major gainers, among which TRG Pakistan (+7.5%), Lucky Cement (+2%), Bank AL Habib (+2.9%), UBL (+2.6%), HBL (+1.8%) and DG Khan Cement (+3.9%) closed higher.
“Going forward, we expect the market to sustain the rally in coming days and recommend investors to view any dips as a buying opportunity in cement and steel sectors,” he said.
Overall trading volumes rose to 383.1 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 370.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs17.98 billion.
Shares of 391 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 267 stocks closed higher, 100 declined and 24 remained unchanged.
Ghani Global Holdings was the volume leader with 35.9 million shares, gaining Rs1.93 to close at Rs28.59. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 28.7 million shares, gaining Rs10.35 to close at Rs148.48 and Byco Petroleum with 26 million shares, losing Rs0.07 to close at Rs9.77.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs210.2 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
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