KARACHI: The upswing in the stock market continued on Thursday as stocks closed higher on the rupee’s recovery against the dollar.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation Ltd said the local currency gained strength on the expected conclusion of the International Monetary Fund deal.
In addition, press reports suggesting Qatar may consider buying shares in Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd also helped lift stock prices.
Strong financial results in banking and fertiliser sectors besides the expectation of strong pay-outs by oil and gas companies under the proposed circular debt settlement plan played the role of a catalyst.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,466.59 points, up 743.27 points or 1.78 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume increased 23.9pc to 367.4 million shares. The traded value went up 9.7pc to $50.2m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (35.1m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (25.2m shares), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (18.2m shares), K-Electric Ltd (17.8m shares) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (16.3m shares).
Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were commercial banking (210.3 points), exploration and production (152.7 points), cement (107.7 points), fertiliser (98.4 points) and oil marketing (13.1 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs219.99), Good Luck Industries Ltd (Rs55.64), Al-Abbas Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs27.41), Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs23.25) and Packages Ltd (Rs16.77).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs44), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs31.73), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs20.01), the Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs17.23) and Dawood Lawrencepur Ltd (Rs15.25).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $1.23m.
Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2023
