KARACHI: Stocks staged a rebound on Friday as investors’ concerns over the political uncertainty in last few days appeared to have resolved. The KSE-100 Index climbed 340.91 points or 0.75 per cent and settled for the weekend at 45,914.98. The 46,000 level is continuing to remain out of reach due to tough resistance.
A degree of volatility was seen as weak investors decided to book profit ahead of the roll-over week. The Monetary Policy Committee meeting, to be held on May 28, has kept interest alive mainly in the banking and cyclical stocks.
“Market participants expect status quo as 73pc of the participants the brokerage polled said they expect no change in policy rate in upcoming MPS,” analysts at Topline Securities said.
Going forward, investors anticipated tax incentives for the industries in the upcoming budget. Some thought that the government may consider the PSX budget proposals, mainly in respect of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) review. Reports that the Privatisation Commission had deferred the divestment of shares in OGDC and PPL due to their depressed market prices, lifted those stocks.
Sectors contributing to the bullish performance included Banks (+116 points), E&P (+68 points), Cement (+31 points), O&GMCs (+29 points) and Autos (+29 points). Stocks that contributed positively to the index included HBL, PPL, OGDC, UBL and PSO.
In the pharmaceutical sector, Wyeth again hit the upper circuit with gain of Rs111.30 after the company confirmed at the PSX that the overseas parent proposed to mop up the minority stake. News that PRL was ready to install up-gradation projects worth $1.2 billion garnered interest in the stock.
Other refinery stocks also edged higher on talks of incentives for the refinery sector. Volumes stood down 10pc from the earlier day to 710.4 million shares while the traded value also slipped 6pc to $128.2m. Volume leaders of the day were WTL , BYCO, HASCOL, KEL, SMBL and PRL as they cumulatively contributed 46pc to the aggregate volume.
Among participants, foreign investors stood on the side-lines while mutual funds came up as unlikely buyers together with individuals and banks.
Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2021
