Stocks end year with impressive gains
PHOTO: FILE
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) made a further impressive recovery on Friday, the last trading day of calendar year 2023, boosted by a significant increase in the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves.
Investor optimism grew following reports of $250 million in financing from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and continued improvement in Pakistan’s external account position.
In the morning, trading commenced on a positive note but soon the market took a deep dive in the very first hour to the intra-day low at 61,807.54. Amid volatility, the KSE-100 index recovered quickly and continued to advance well after midday.
It touched the day’s high at 62,644.38 points where investors resorted to profit-taking. The bourse recovered again and closed the day above 62,450 with gains of nearly 400 points.
“PSX witnessed a bull-run as investors weighed the surge in State Bank’s forex reserves by $853 million to $7.8 billion amid financial support from bilateral creditors and approval of $250 million in AIIB financing,” remarked Arif Habib Corp MD Ahsan Mehanti.
“Rupee stability, falling government bond yields and improving external account position played the role of catalysts in bullish close at the PSX.”
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a rise of 398.81 points, or 0.64%, and settled at 62,451.04.
Topline Securities, in its report, stated that range-bound trading was observed on the last session of calendar year 2023 as the index rose to the intra-day high of 399 points and fell to the intra-day low of -245 points. It closed at 62,451, up 0.64%.
Major positive contribution came from Pakistan Petroleum, United Bank, K-Electric, Engro Fertilisers, Fauji Fertiliser and Oil and Gas Development Company as they contributed 361 points to the index, it said.
On the other hand, Bank AL Habib, Hub Power, MCB Bank, Mari Petroleum, Habib Bank Limited and TRG Pakistan pulled the index down by 233 points, Topline added.
Read Institutional buying propels PSX above 62k
Arif Habib Limited (AHL), in its review, wrote that the KSE-100 index witnessed a solid close of the year above 62k. On the Bloomberg index, Pakistan closed the year at 22nd place with solid gains of 24.54% (in US dollars).
“Some 56 shares rose and 38 fell. Pakistan Petroleum (+3.59%) contributed the most to the gains while Bank AL Habib (-2.56%) was the biggest drag on the index,” it said.
“Any decline should now find support at 61,000 to set up moves towards 65,000,” it said and highlighted that Pakistan currently ranked 25th in the CY23 global performance table with a surge of 23.75% in dollar terms.
JS Global analyst Mubashir Anis Naviwala said that the KSE-100 index went up to the intra-day high at 62,644 and eventually closed at 62,451, up 399 points.
“Going forward, we expect the bullish trend to continue and recommend investors to view any downside as an opportunity to buy stocks in banking, cement and E&P sectors,” the analyst added.
Overall trading volumes decreased to 590.6 million shares against Thursday’s tally of 676.2 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs16.8 billion.
Shares of 359 companies were traded. Of these, 207 stocks closed higher, 130 dropped and 22 remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with trading in 141.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.5 to close at Rs5.26. It was followed by Fauji Foods with 28.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.26 to close at Rs11.14 and WorldCall Telecom with 27.9 million shares, losing Rs0.01 to close at Rs1.41.
Foreign investors were net buyers of shares worth Rs73.5 million, according to the NCCPL.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2023.
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