KARACHI: Stocks on Thursday extended their bullish stance to the third trading day of the rollover week. The KSE-100 index opened in the positive and early day investors’ exuberance carried it to intra-day high by 456 points. However, after several ups and downs in regular succession the index closed with gains of 182 points or 0.40 per cent at 45,726.17.

The underlying factor that cast a positive spell on investors’ sentiments in the rollover week were the reports of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) approval for the release $500 million tranche under the 39-month Extended Fund Facility arrangement for $6 billion signed on July 3, 2019. The IMF was said to have approved four pending reviews of Pakistan’s economy, including State Bank’s autonomy, reforms in corporate taxation, efforts to prop up state-owned enterprises, and enact reforms in the power sector. Furthermore, friendly gestures with India which could eventually remove the trade ban between the two countries also garnered investors’ sentiments. However, the upcoming long march by the opposition was unsettling while investors’ concerns over rising inflation and volatile commodities prices also spoiled the mood, triggering profit-taking as investors decided to err on the side of caution.

Although, Banks, E&P, O&GMCs and Fertiliser stocks ended the session in red, it was mostly Technology, Refinery and Cement sectors that contributed positively to the index. Investor interest was witnessed in the automobile sector where Pak Suzuki, Indus Motors, Honda Cars and Gandhara Industries gained to close in the green trajectory. Major index movers for the day were TRG (6.3pc), ANL (7.3pc), LUCK (0.7pc), Kapco (2.8pc).

Market participants did not commit big funds to stocks with the major buying of shares worth $1.38m by insurance companies and $0.95m by companies. The sellers were banks with $1.36m worth shares. Traded volumes in ready market increased 15pc over the previous day to 470.4m shares.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include PTC, TRG, BYCO, UNITY and HASCOL, which formed 40pc of total volumes.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2021