KARACHI:
The seven-day bearish spell at the Pakistan Stock Exchange finally came to a halt on Tuesday as bulls staged a return and tossed the benchmark KSE-100 index over the 45,000-point barrier.
Investor participation revived at the bourse and widespread cherry picking in several sectors triggered a rally. Buoyed by the recent dip, share prices fell to attractive valuations and motivated market participants to assume fresh positions.
The government’s commitment to comply with the International Monetary Fund’s recommendations, upcoming visit of the United States deputy secretary to Pakistan for enhancing bilateral cooperation and result announcements boosted market sentiment.
The news of further devaluation of the local currency to an all-time low against the US dollar failed to dampen investors’ confidence and the buying spree persisted.
Earlier, the trading session saw minor ups and downs in a narrow range touching an intraday low of 44,747.22 points. However, emerging towards the end of the session the index saw a sharp spike on the back of a buying spree.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 457.17 points, or 1.02%, to settle at 45,274.93.
In a report, Arif Habib Limited stated that initially the market traded in a narrow range, oscillating between -71 points and +120 points, but gathered pace by the end of session to add a total of 477 points, closing the session at a high note.
OGDC posted the result early on and declared a below expectation dividend that dragged the price down. The stock price went up, although it remained below LDCP, after the announcement of a discovery.
Uptick was witnessed in technology, cement, steel, banks, oil and gas marketing companies and refinery sectors.
Pakistan Oilfields Limited added a formidable gain as an exception to Oil and Gas Development Company Limited and Pakistan Petroleum Limited. Tech sector saw Avanceon Limited, Telecard Limited and NetSol Technologies Limited hitting upper circuits.
Sectors contributing to the performance include technology (+157 points), refinery (+40 points), oil and gas marketing companies (+35 points), fertiliser (+32 points) and textile (+29 points).
JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said, “Going forward, we recommend investors to adopt a buy on dip strategy in banks, exploration and production and textiles.”
Overall trading volumes increased to 364.8 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 301.3 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs14.03 billion.
Shares of 556 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 408 stocks closed higher, 127 declined and 21 remained unchanged.
Telecard Limited was the volume leader with 35.8 million shares, gaining Rs1.21 to close at Rs17.38. It was followed by Byco Petroleum with 33.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.83 to close at Rs7.84 and WorldCall Telecom with 22.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.15 to close at Rs2.91.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs1.06 billion worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
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