KARACHI: Investors “celebrated” the downgrade of the Pakistan Stock Exchange from MSCI’s emerging market to frontier market, which kept the benchmark index in the green zone on Monday.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, the index opened with a bullish momentum as traders took aggressive bets on cement, steel and technology stocks. High inflation numbers led to the stock accumulation in the banking sector later on. A sharp upside was witnessed in the last trading hour as short-sellers jumped in to square off their trading positions, it added.

As a result, the KSE-100 index added 296.76 points or 0.66 per cent to close at 45,369.14 points.

Market participation decreased 41.4pc to 241.1m shares while the value of traded shares declined 73.5pc to $52.6m.

Sectors contributing the highest number of points to the benchmark index included cement (113.25 points), commercial banking (85.01 points), fertiliser (31.96 points), oil and gas exploration (20.06 points) and power generation and distribution (15.63 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included Fauji Foods Ltd (38.34m shares), Fauji Foods-R (37.06m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (14.85m shares), Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (10.69m shares) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (9.01m shares).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index included Lucky Cement Ltd (44.36 points), United Bank Ltd (31.28 points), Habib Bank Ltd (23.42 points), Cherat Cement Company Ltd (19.15 points) and D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd (17.81 points).

Shares that contributed negatively included Systems Ltd (20.88 points), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (17.17 points), Nishat Mills Ltd (7.01 points), Packages Ltd (5.97 points) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (5.59 points).

Stocks recording the biggest increases in percentage terms included Pioneer Cement Ltd, which went up 5.57pc, followed by Cherat Cement Company Ltd (4.61pc), D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd (4.17pc), Yousaf Weaving Mills Ltd (4.09pc) and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Ltd (3pc).

Foreign investors remained net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $1.53m on a net basis.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2021