Stocks recover 449 points on cherry-picking
KARACHI: Bulls made a comeback to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday after three gloomy sessions.
Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark of 100 representative shares stayed at a higher level as investors chose to cherry-pick stocks at appealing rates.
It added that investors’ participation grew dramatically after the State Bank of Pakistan governor issued a “much-needed” clarification on the issue of letters of credit. His statement resulted in the benchmark making an intraday high of 603.76 points. The volume of traded shares on the exchange’s mainboard remained healthy.
“Going forward, we expect pressure in the market and recommend investors should stay cautious and wait for any dips for fresh buying in cement and banking sectors,” said JS Global.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 38,791.09 points, up 448.88 points or 1.17 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume decreased 25.7pc to 153.1 million shares. The traded value went down 25.4pc to $21.9m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (19m shares), K-Electric Ltd (13.1m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (10.1m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (6.7m shares) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (6.1m shares).
Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were technology and communication (165.4 points), fertiliser (100.3 points), exploration and production (84.1 points), power generation and distribution (44.9 points) and commercial banking (38.6 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs71.11), Systems Ltd (Rs22.69), the Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs17.59), Dawood Lawrencepur Ltd (Rs15) and Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd (Rs14.85).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs287), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs161.17), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs54.25), Al-Ghazi Tractors Ltd (Rs13.55) and Highnoon Laboratories Ltd (Rs10.54).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $1.55m.
Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2023