KARACHI: Share prices skyrocketed on Thursday as investors welcomed the government’s attempt at reviving the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme.

Topline Securities said new taxation measures of nearly Rs300 billion are on the cards, which will pave the way for the signing of the staff-level agreement with the Washington-based lender.

Furthermore, the rupee witnessed record one-day devaluation in the interbank and open markets, which led the benchmark index of representative shares to make an intraday high of 1,209 points.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, a major confidence booster for the investors was the rupee’s shift to a free-float regime. The trading volume soared across the board subsequently, it added.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,846.53 points, up 1,061.63 points or 2.67 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 35.1pc to 364.1 million shares. The traded value went up 23.8pc to $56.7m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Cnergyico PK Ltd (44.7m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (20m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (14.2m shares), D.G. Khan Cement Ltd (13.4m shares) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (13.3m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were banking (353.9 points), fertiliser (230.1 points), cement (100.4 points), miscellaneous (81.4 points) and power (46.7 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs158.50), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs115.75), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs111.99), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs45.65) and Ismail Industries Ltd (Rs34.68).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs92.57), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs89.99), Archroma Pakistan Ltd (Rs20.81), Fazal Cloth Mills Ltd (Rs10.91) and Sunrays Textile Mills Ltd (Rs7.35).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $1.28m.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2023