KARACHI: The stock market continued its upbeat momentum on Thursday as the shares of blue-chip firms rose on reports that the Islamabad High Court struck down the super tax on high-earning entities.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said expectations of the status quo in the central bank’s policy rate announcement scheduled for July 31 also fuelled the positive momentum.

In addition, robust economic data on the current account balance, which recorded a surplus of $334 million in June, played the role of a catalyst in the bullish close.

JS Global said investors should accumulate on dips as the index could once again hit the 45,800-point level. The trading desk of Arif Habib Ltd said the KSE-100 index will target 47,000 points “in the near term” as the price expansion phase continues.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 45,398.31 points, up 303.20 points or 0.67 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 89.1pc to 464.2 million shares. The traded value went up 7.4pc to Rs10.1bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (185.2m shares), the Bank of Punjab Ltd (19.5m shares), K-Electric Ltd (15.9m shares), Telecard Ltd (12.6m shares) and Unity Foods Ltd (11.6m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs61), Al-Abbas Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs29), JDW Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs24.90), ZIL Ltd (Rs19.25) and Mari Petrol­eum Company Ltd (Rs13.50).

Companies that reco­rded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs112.38), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs100), Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs100), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs34) and Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs32.09). Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.34m.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2023