Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday exhibited a highly impressive performance as it surged around 1,150 points and touched a new record high, supported by rupee stability and growing foreign currency reserves.
The bourse made a rapid advance amid rollover of $3 billion in Saudi deposits at the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and soaring foreign portfolio investment.
Besides, deliberations over the privatisation of loss-incurring state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and a modest reduction in diesel price encouraged investors to opt for stock buying.
Prominent stocks of auto, cement and fertiliser sectors took the market to the intra-day high of 61,779.72 points before the close of trading.
“Stocks closed at a new all-time high amid rupee stability after the rollover of Saudi deposits, strong key economic data and surging foreign portfolio investment (FIPI),” said Arif Habib Corp MD Ahsan Mehanti.
“Reports of $30 million in net FIPI to over six-year high during November 2023 and government’s deliberations over the privatisation of ailing SOEs played the role of catalysts in record close of the PSX.”
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded handsome gains of 1,159.98 points, or 1.92%, and settled at 61,691.25.
Topline Securities, in its report, wrote that the KSE-100 index continued its upward momentum, reaching a record high of 61,691 with gains of 1.92%.
The market responded favourably to improvement in Pakistan’s economic indicators including a rise of $77 million in foreign exchange reserves to $7.25 billion and the anticipated reduction in the State Bank’s policy rate in the coming months, it said.
Across-the-board buying was observed where major positive contributors were Millat Tractors, Engro, Lucky Cement, Pakistan Petroleum and Dawood Hercules, which cumulatively added 407 points, Topline added.
Arif Habib Limited (AHL) commented that the KSE-100 index added 4.25% week-on-week (WoW) and closed comfortably above 61k with gains of 1.92% on Friday alone.
“A heavy skew of 81:13 was noted in the advancers-to-decliners (A/D) ratio,” it said.
Major contributors to the gains were Millat Tractors (+7.5%), Engro (+3.99%) and Lucky Cement (+4%). Biggest drags were Unilever (-4.44%), Pakistan Oilfields (-0.34%) and Pakistan Services (-0.55%).
“Support for next week is expected to rise to 60.2k with further immediate gains,” AHL added.
JS Global analyst Mohammed Waqar Iqbal said that the KSE-100 index breached the psychological resistance of 61,000 points and closed at 61,691.
Major investors were keen to buy stocks of cement, exploration and production (E&P) and technology sectors. “Going forward, we recommend investors to view any downtrend as an opportunity to buy stocks in banking and E&P sectors,” the analyst added.
Overall trading volumes decreased to 531.3 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 467.2 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs21.6 billion.
Shares of 388 companies were traded. Of these, 298 stocks closed higher, 74 dropped and 16 remained unchanged.
Maple Leaf Cement was the volume leader with trading in 43.1 million shares, gaining Rs2.81 to close at Rs42.36. It was followed by Pak Elektron with 39.8 million shares, gaining Rs1.23 to close at Rs18.97 and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim with 27.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.56 to close at Rs24.56.
Foreign investors were net buyers of shares worth Rs534.4 million, according to the NCCPL.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2023.
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