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KARACHI: After a day’s withdrawal, stocks resumed the upward journey on Thursday and the KSE-100 index closed with a gain of 866.03 points (2.80 per cent) at 31,837.30. Intraday, the market made a high at 1,038 points.
The persistent selling by foreigners continued as they offloaded stocks worth $3.34 million which were picked up by individuals and brokers while institutions and mutual funds generally stepped aside. Yet, several positive factors helped the stock prices to regain lost values.
Shehzad Chamdia, director PSX, said that the gain in stock values was justified as the shares are valued by their market capitalisation and not as much by the earnings forecasts. Investors seemed to take a sigh of relief as the International Monetary Fund plans to provide Pakistan $1.4 billion by next week to improve the country’s financial situation as it fights coronavirus.
Other than that, the significant reduction in yields in the latest T-bills auction held a day earlier, where 12-month treasury yield declined 122 basis points, giving a boost to the investor sentiments as they thought it could justify further cut in State Bank policy rates going forward.
Arif Habib Ltd stated in their report: “ECC’s consideration of issuance of Sukuk II also paved the way for index heavyweight Hub Power to trade near the upper circuit, after consolidating for the past couple of sessions. Similarly, Pakistan State Oil leapt forward on the prospects of Sukuk II issuance to trade near upper circuit.”
Banking stood out as lead gainer which added 201 points to the index. Apparent slowdown of foreign selling pressure in Habib and United helped logged gains. The hike in international crude prices pushed up major oil stocks including Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) and Pakistan Oilfields.
Cement also saw the highest traded shares at 60.9m with Cherat, higher by 7.5pc and DG Khan 7.5pc closed limit up.
Other major scrips that helped elate the index included Engro Corporation, up 1.8pc, Habib Bank 1.7pc, Hub Power 1.7pc, Fauji Fertiliser 1.9pc, OGDC 3.3pc, MCB 2.8pc, PPL 4.2pc, United Bank 3.9pc and Lucky Cement 2.9pc.
Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2020
