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KARACHI: The shares market witnessed another bull session on Wednesday as investors continued to accumulate banking stocks ahead of the monetary policy announcement scheduled for next week.
Topline Securities said the upswing after the signing of a $3 billion Stand-By Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund has added a total of 5,230 points or 12.6 per cent to the representative index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
Another highlight of the day was the appreciation in the rupee, which gained 0.52pc after eight sessions of continuous devaluation. The likely reasons for the trend reversal was the rollover of Chinese safe deposits of $1 billion as well as the central bank’s permission to exchange companies for exporting foreign currencies other than the dollar via cargo/security companies and repatriate an equivalent dollar amount within five days in their bank accounts.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 46,682.53 points, up 265.19 points or 0.57pc from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume increased 34.2pc to 429.5 million shares. The traded value went up 37.8pc to Rs14.1bn on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (58.8m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (22.2m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (18.4m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (15.9m shares) and Agritech Ltd (12.6m shares).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs31.88), Attock Refinery Ltd (Rs12.27), Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs11.87), Abbott Laboratories Ltd (Rs10.45) and Shell Pakistan Ltd (Rs10.21).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs28.69), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs20.01), the Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs18.01), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs12.49) and Suraj Cotton Mills Ltd (Rs7).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.37m.
Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2023
