Stocks rally after govt issues clarification on IMF talks
KARACHI: Stock prices ended their downward slide on Wednesday as their benchmark index stayed in the green throughout the trading session.
Arif Habib Ltd said stock prices showed improvement following a clarification by the Ministry of Finance with regard to the ninth review of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. Following “false” messages about the “supposed economic emergency” on social media, the government clarified a day ago that the IMF programme was back on track and that negotiations leading to ninth review were now at an “advanced stage”.
Investors regained confidence after two days of continuous drops in stock rates because of the clarification and their renewed interest reflected in healthy participation.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,819.29 points, up 279.35 points or 0.67 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume increased 68.2pc to 221.5 million shares. The traded value went up 50.3pc to $26.2m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Dewan Cement Ltd (29.5m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (21.4m shares), Kohinoor Spinning Mills Ltd (13.6m shares), Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (12m shares) and Hascol Petroleum Ltd (11m shares).
Sectors that contributed to the index performance were cement (54.1 points), commercial banking (48.5 points), technology and communication (48.4 points), miscellaneous (37.3 points), oil marketing (26.4 points).
Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs73.17), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs72.60), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs36.67), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs24.11) and Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd (Rs20).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs377.49), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs100), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs48), Blessed Textiles Ltd (Rs24.99) and Suraj Cotton Mills Ltd (Rs10.61).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.23m.
Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2022