KARACHI: The shares market continued its positive momentum on Thursday on the back of a strengthening rupee, the rollover of Chinese safe deposits and a decline in international oil prices.

According to Topline Securities, investors’ interest was witnessed in the banking sector as MCB Bank Ltd, Habib Bank Ltd, Meezan Bank Ltd and United Bank Ltd closed on the higher side.

The dollar rate in the interbank market was Rs226.15 after the rupee gained 1.17 per cent from a day ago.

Stocks showed a bullish trend in the earnings season on surging global equities, firm bond yields and a sharp rupee recovery amid the SBP’s crackdown on exchange firms, said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation.

“We recommend investors should adopt a buy-on-dips strategy for cement, banks and exploration and production sectors,” JS Global noted.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,425.37 points, up 356.5 points or 0.87pc from a day ago.

The trading volume decreased 9.2pc to 275.4 million shares while the traded value went down 16.3pc to $35m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (44.4m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (12.19m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (11.96m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (11.42m shares) and Unity Foods Ltd (10.59m shares).

Sectors contributing to the index performance included banking (129.18 points), cement (75.9 points), fertiliser (25.8 points), textile (24.7 points) and oil marketing (19.6 points).

Top advancers in percentage terms were Husein Sugar Mill Ltd-Preference (19.04pc), Unicap Modaraba (13.28pc), Ashfaq Textile Mills Ltd (11.9pc), Shaheen Insurance Company Ltd (10.84pc) and Habib Insurance Company Ltd (9.05pc).

Top decliners in percentage terms were Cordoba Logistics and Ventures Ltd-R (40pc), First Fidelity Leasing Modaraba (12.96pc), Hira Textile Mills Ltd (12.44pc), Redco Textile Mills Ltd (9.76pc) and KASB Modaraba (9.66pc).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.17m.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2022