Bulls take charge over election timing clarity

KSE-100 index rises 414.56 points, settles at 62,393.74

KARACHI:

Bulls staged a comeback at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday, pushing the KSE-100 index up by over 400 points as investors rejoiced at the elections remaining on schedule despite political noise.

After taking a heavy battering earlier in the week when uncertainty about the timely holding of elections hovered over the market, investor sentiment flipped and bulls took charge, helping the index move forward.

Bullish activity was also driven by speculation about the government’s resolve to curtail the power-sector circular debt following the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) approval.

The index touched the intra-day high at 62,480.23 during late hours owing to cherry-picking by investors and closed the day just shy of 62,400.

“Stocks closed bullish on reports of timely general elections after the ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan) meeting and upbeat data of exports that surged 26.9% year-on-year to $2.786 billion in January while trade deficit fell 39% to $12.24 billion for Jul-Jan FY24,” said Arif Habib Corp MD Ahsan Mehanti.

Read Political, security fears drive PSX down

“Speculation about the government’s resolve to slash power-sector circular debt after IMF’s approval played the role of catalyst in bullish close at the PSX.”

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 414.56 points, or 0.67%, and settled at 62,393.74.

Topline Securities, in its report, remarked that it was a “trend reversal day”.

Earlier, while continuing Wednesday’s momentum, Pakistan equities went into the negative zone. However, at the day’s low, value hunters opted to do some cherry-picking, which helped the index to close up by 415 points at 62,394, it said.

Overall trading volumes decreased to 270.5 million shares against Wednesday’s tally of 276.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs11.6 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2024.

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