KARACHI: Bulls dominated trading on the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday following a sharp recovery in the rupee against the dollar.

Arif Habib Ltd said investors gained confidence after some clarity emerged on the political scene. Its analyst Ahsan Mehanti said the rupee’s recovery was because of the decision to appoint a new finance minister.

The local currency appreciated 1.1 per cent to 237.02 a dollar in the interbank market.

Investors’ expectations about an exit from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force next month and the likely inflows from the International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and friendly countries also played a key role in the higher close of the index.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,151.54 points, up 531.33 points or 1.31pc from the preceding session.

The trading volume increased 28.9pc to 213 million shares while the traded value went up 38.5pc to $40.2m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included TRG Pakistan Ltd (27.4m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (17.3m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (15.4m shares), K-Electric Ltd (15.2m shares) and WorldCall Telecom Ltd (11.3m shares).

Sectors that contributed to the index performance were technology (111.8 points), power (104.4 points), cement (78.9 points), oil marketing (34.8 points) and banking (33.5 points).

Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs55.89), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs55), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs13), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs12.68 and National Refinery Ltd (Rs11.96).

Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs105), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs69.26), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs36.83), Atlas Honda Ltd (Rs10.99) and Otsuka Pakistan Ltd (Rs10.35).

Foreign investors remained net buyers as they purchased shares worth $2.25m.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2022