Market watch: Bourse snaps bearish streak, rises 228 points

Benchmark KSE-100 index gains 0.49% to settle at 46,625.12

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Stock Exchange snapped its three-day losing streak and posted a rebound of 228 points as market participants largely brushed off the pessimism over reclassification of Pakistan and its inclusion in Frontier Markets (FM) by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI).

Market sentiment turned positive over belief the MSCI reclassification would act as a blessing in disguise for Pakistan as funds following the FM Index might take new positions.

In addition, market participants resorted to cherry-picking of stocks, which had dropped to attractive valuations after the recent bear run.

Earlier, trading kicked off optimistically and the KSE-100 index spiked in the initial hour but early session selling pressure erased most of the gains.

The market witnessed multiple rises and falls owing to the absence of positive triggers but it remained in the green zone throughout the day. A buying spree, emerging in the final hour, lifted the index further upwards.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 228.41 points, or 0.49%, to settle at 46,625.12.

A report of Arif Habib Limited stated that the market moved up after a downward adjustment on Wednesday over the MSCI reclassification, which placed Pakistan in Frontier Markets compared to its earlier status of Emerging Markets.

Technology, cement, oil and gas marketing and fertiliser sector stocks performed well whereas steel and refinery sectors were the laggards.

Octopus Digital scored high on the first day of its initial public offering (IPO), where the target was met in the first 24 minutes after the opening of bidding session. The total bid size against the issue size of 27.35 million shares crossed six times on the first day.

This helped Avanceon Limited, the parent company of Octopus Digital, hit its upper circuit, the report said.

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said that after a three-day sell-off, the market finally rebounded and closed higher by 228 points at 46,625.

The cement sector saw mixed sentiment where Cherat Cement (-1.5%) and Lucky Cement (-2%) closed in the negative region whereas Pioneer Cement (+1%) remained in the green zone.

On the other hand, UBL (+1.4%), Faysal Bank (+7.5%) and Meezan Bank (+2.5%) in the banking sector remained positive.

 “Going forward, we recommend investors to remain cautious and wait for significant dips for further buying,” the analyst said.

Overall trading volumes fell to 396.4 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 477.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs16.5 billion.

Shares of 525 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 252 stocks closed higher, 245 declined and 28 remained unchanged.

Ghani Global Holdings was the volume leader with 56.8 million shares, losing Rs3.44 to close at Rs44.95. It was followed by Telecard Limited with 41.1 million shares, losing Rs0.14 to close at Rs22.97 and WorldCall Telecom with 20.4 million shares, losing Rs0.01 to close at Rs3.33.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs985.5 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.