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KARACHI: Bulls dominated the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday as Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said Arif Habib Ltd.
The IMF news triggered a wave of positive sentiments and amplified investors’ confidence. Participation remained healthy across the board with cyclical stocks staying in the limelight, the brokerage added.
The staff-level agreement has paved the way for the combined seventh and eighth reviews leading to the release of the much-awaited $1.17 billion.
In addition, a statement by the finance minister hinting at slashing the prices of petrol and diesel following a decline in the international oil prices also elevated the investors’ sentiments.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,348.91 points, up 486.14 points or 1.16 per cent from a day ago.
The trading volume increased 38.2pc to 227.8 million shares while the traded value went up 14.5pc to $35.4m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (32.15m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (14.15m shares), Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (9.15m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (9.11m shares) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Company Ltd (8.27m shares).
Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included commercial banking (123.23 points), cement (81.88 points), fertiliser (76.17 points), engineering (37.17 points) and technology and communication (36.05 points).
Shares contributing most positively to the index included Systems Ltd (36.85 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (36.75 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (36.53 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (33.06 points) and Bank AL Habib Ltd (26.35 points).
Stocks that contributed most negatively to the index included Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (17.4 points), Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (6.34 points), Abbott Laboratories Pakistan Ltd (5.63 points), Millat Tractors Ltd (5.58 points) and Service Industries Ltd (2.58 points).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.17m.
Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2022
