KARACHI: The shares market witnessed an upswing on Friday as news reports suggested surging exports were supporting a recovery in the rupee’s value against the dollar.

In particular, oil stocks outperformed the benchmark index on the back of rising global crude prices, said Arif Habib Corpor­ation analyst Ahsan Meh­anti. The announcement by the Election Comm­ission of Pakistan relating to the national polls early next year also helped investors’ sentiments.

Another positive factor contributing to a positive close of the KSE-100 index was the government’s decision to speed up the sell-off of struggling state-owned entities.

A major upward movement in the share price of the Hub Power Company Ltd was witnessed based on the expectation that a dividend of Rs6 per share was “imminent” following the project completion of CPHGC, a joint-venture firm, said Arif Habib Ltd.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 46,421.15 points, up 219 points or 0.47pc from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume remained almost unchanged from the preceding day at 172.9 million shares. The traded value increased 17.3pc to Rs6.2 billion on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Cnergyico PK Ltd (10.5m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (10m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (8.1m shares), the Hub Power Company Ltd (7.4m shares) and K-Electric Ltd (7.4m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs64.93), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs57.65), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs44), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs33.17) and Highnoon Laboratories Ltd (Rs14.86).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs90), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs14.90), JS Global Capital Ltd (Rs9.72), Suraj Cotton Mills Ltd (Rs7.99) and Shahtaj Textile Ltd (Rs7).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.54m.

Published in Dawn, September 23th, 2023