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KARACHI: Bulls dominated the stock market on Wednesday, although the overall volume remained unimpressive owing to a fluid political situation in Islamabad.
According to Standard Capital Securities, the government’s apathy towards the Pakistan Stock Exchange is one of the reasons for the dull trading volumes in recent sessions. “Asset managers want clear economic directions. The situation is bad with respect to the probably higher current account deficit and outlook on interest rates since March inflation will be even higher than 12.24pc,” it said.
At the end of trading, the KSE-100 index gained 255.87 points or 0.59 per cent on a day-on-day basis to close at 43,975.69 points.
The trading volume increased 25.1pc to 236.5 million shares while the traded value went 23.6pc to $32.3m on a day-on-day basis.
Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included technology and communication (87.7 points), cement (76.12 points), commercial banking (41.12 points), food and personal care (22.18 points) and textile composite (18.54 points).
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Flying Cement Ltd (22.34m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (19.69m shares), Treet Corporation Ltd (15.22m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (12.96m shares) and Pak Elektron Ltd (11.95m shares).
Shares contributing positively to the index included Systems Ltd (76.86 points), D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd (20.66 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (16.84 points), United Bank Ltd (16.19 points) and The Hub Power Company Ltd (15.25 points).
Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included Habib Bank Ltd (20.12 points), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (15.11 points), Indus Motor Company Ltd (14.84 points), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (6.95 points) and Engro Corporation Ltd (6.05 points).
In percentage terms, the largest increases were registered by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company Ltd (8.42pc), D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd (5.74pc), Systems Ltd (5.24pc), Highnoon Laboratories Ltd (4.79pc) and National Foods Ltd (4.72pc).
Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $1.77m.
Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2022
