KARACHI: After posting losses overnight, the stock market on Wedne­sday resumed its upward drive due to political clarity and strong corporate results as investors opted to do some cherry-picking at attractive levels.

Topline Securities Ltd said the equities remained bullish almost throughout the session thanks to further clarity with regards to formation of new government in the centre.

The market witnessed an across the board buying momentum after Moody’s Investors Service maintained Pakistan’s ratings unchanged at ‘Caa3’ with a stable outlook but highlighted that significantly high risks of liquidity and external vulnerability challenges following highly controversial elections, severely constrained decision-making capacity of the coalition government-in-waiting.

Resultantly, fertiliser, cement, bank and exploration and production sectors contributed positively to the index as Fauji Fertiliser Company, Engro Fert­ilisers Ltd, Lucky Cement, MCB Bank and Oil and Gas Development Company comulatively added 314 points.

As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 63,703.45 points after gaining 484.35 points or 0.77per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume rose 12.54pc to 461.39 million shares. The traded value also increased by 9.03pc to Rs16bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Cner­gyico PK Ltd (62.18m shares), K-Electric (45.39m shares), Kohinoor Spinning Mills Ltd (23.30m shares), World­Call Telecom Ltd (21.67m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (30.48m shares) and Pakistan Refi­nery Ltd (20.72m shares).

Shares registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods Company Ltd (Rs655.00), The Premier Sugar (Rs33.75), Lucky Cement Ltd (Rs24.53), Dawood Larencepur (Rs17.78) and Thal Ltd (Rs15.24).

Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs50.00), Bata Pakistan (Rs25.40), Hoechst Pakistan (Rs­21.00), Ferozesons Labo­rat­ories (Rs8.70) and Siemens Pakistan Ltd (Rs6.95).

Foreign investors rem­ained net buyers as they pic­ked shares worth $2.95m.

Published in Dawn, February 29th, 2024