Market watch: Bulls stage comeback on positive triggers

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises 296.77 points to settle at 45,374.68

KARACHI:

Bulls staged a comeback at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday, after a week of volatile trading, as the benchmark KSE-100 index registered a decent rally, starting the week on a positive note.

Bullish sentiment prevailed throughout the day that kept the KSE-100 index in the positive territory.

Trading activity received a major boost on news that Pakistan was seeking a $3 billion loan from China to stabilise its dwindling foreign currency reserves amid fresh appreciation of the rupee against the US dollar.

On the international front, a bull-run in the equities market further bolstered the confidence of market players at the Pakistan bourse.

Earlier, the trading session started on a positive note and the KSE-100 index continued its upward march with minor oscillations.

It touched an intra-day high of 45,463 points, but profit-taking later in the day, stemming from the rising Covid-19 cases in the country, wiped off some of the gains.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a rise of 296.77 points, or 0.66%, to settle at 45,374.68.

A report of Arif Habib Limited stated that bulls ruled the market as Pakistan eyed a $3 billion loan from China.

The market opened on a positive note and stayed in the green zone throughout the day, it said.

Main board activity remained gloomy. On the flip side, activity continued to remain sideways as the market witnessed hefty volumes in third-tier stocks.

In the last trading hour, profit-taking was witnessed due to rising Covid-19 cases, the report said.

Sectors contributing to the performance included banks (+65 points), fertiliser (+41 points), technology (+33 points), exploration and production (+30 points) and chemical (+23 points).

JS Global analyst Neelam Naz said that the benchmark KSE-100 index touched an intra-day high of 45,463 points before finally closing at 45,375, up 297 points compared to the previous session.

Treet Corporation (+5.6%), WorldCall Telecom (+1.4%), TRG Pakistan (+2%), Waves Singer Pakistan (+4.8%) and Hum Network (+1.7%) were the highest contributors to the trading volumes.

Index leaders were Bank AL Habib, Unity Foods, Colgate-Palmolive (Pakistan), TRG Pakistan and Pakistan Petroleum.

“Going forward, we recommend investors to accumulate stocks on dips, especially in the banking and fertiliser sectors,” the analyst said.

Overall trading volumes decreased to 251.7 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 258.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.6 billion.

Shares of 360 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 237 stocks closed higher, 96 declined and 27 remained unchanged.

Treet Corporation was the volume leader with 22.9 million shares, gaining Rs2.15 to close at Rs40.69. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 22.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.03 to close at Rs2.24 and TRG Pakistan with 18.1 million shares, gaining Rs1.77 to close at Rs88.93.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs186.64 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.