KARACHI: The Pakis­tan Stock Exchange exten­ded its record-breaking streak on Friday for the second consecutive day, pushing the KSE 100 index above 95,000 intraday as an improved economic outlook encouraged investors to continue their buying spree at attractive valuations.

The index rallied 1,086.38 points to hit an intraday record high of 95,278.27. However, profit-taking towards the session’s close saw trimming of some early gains, but it still settled at an all-time high of 94,763.64 after gaining 571.75 points despite a fall in volume day-on-day.

Topline Securities Ltd Chief Executive Moham­med Sohail said the non-stop buying by local funds of more than Rs25 billion in the last six weeks after a sharp fall in interest rates helped the market to post daily records. Moreover, he added that the IMF staff visit also showed so far all well with economic stabilisation.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said speculations over imminent reforms and privatisation in the energy sector owing to IMF concerns over power tariffs, China debt rollover, and pending circular debt issues kept institutional interest in blue chip oil stocks.

He added that the falling bank lending rates, rising forex reserves and rupee stability supported the bull run at PSX.

The banking sector continued attracting buying interest on news that the Islamabad High Court has temporarily barred the government from collecting an additional tax of up to 15pc from banks on borrowing to the private sector if it is lower than the target.

United Bank, Habib Bank and Meezan Bank contributed 301 points to the index. However, the trading volume fell 17.63pc to 893.17m shares, and its value decreased 3.13pc to Rs30.81 day-on-day.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included World­Call Telecom (77.99m shares), Fauji Foods (70.72m shares), Hascol Petroleum (55.50m shares), K-Electric (36.88m shares) and Sui Southern Gas Company (36.29m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs279.82), Pakistan National Shipp­ing Corporation (Rs29.88), Pakistan Engineering Company (Rs27.74), Philip Morris (Rs24.61) and Nestle Pakistan (Rs18.01).

The companies that suffered significant losses in their share prices in absolute terms were Hallmark Company (Rs42.47), Khy­ber Textile (Rs39.19), Sapphire Textile (Rs33.17), Haleon Pakistan (Rs21.56) and Service Industries (Rs17.90).

Mutual funds were aggressive buyers, picking shares worth $3.28m.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2024