KSE Index up 341 points on improved economic condition

The Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark-100 Index increased by 341 points on Monday on improved economic condition, dealers said.
Ahsan Mehanti, an analyst at Arif Habib Corp, said the stocks closed bullish in the quarter-end earnings announcements session led by leveraged stocks on falling borrowing costs and speculations ahead of the SBP policy rates decisions next month.
Oil stock supported the index to close near the session highs after rally in WTI crude prices above $50 per barrel. Easing political noise and bullish activity in the global equities and commodities played a catalytic role in the positive close.
The KSE-100 Index closed higher by 340.67 points, or 1.01 percent, to 34,183.85 points against 33,843.18 points recorded in the last session. The highest index of the day remained at 34,252.29 points, while the lowest level of the day was recorded at 33,843.18 points.
The KSE-30 Index also improved by 274.37 points, or 1.35 percent, to 20,658.19 points against 20,383.82 points.
Turnover; however, fell by 53 million shares to 195.91 million against 248.91 million shares.
Trading value declined to Rs9.80 billion against Rs13.88 billion, while market capitalisation rose to Rs7.29 trillion against Rs7.23 trillion recorded in the last session.
Of a total of 395 active companies in the session, 206 closed in the green, 161 in the red, while 28 remained unchanged.
Ahmed Saeed Khan, an analyst at JS Research, said positivity continued as the market saw an intraday high of 410 points to close the index up one percent with supporting volumes of 196 million shares. Positivity could be attributed to exploration and production and auto sector.
E&P sector rallied on the back of recovering crude oil prices that touched the $50 mark at intraday. Top performers in the sector were MARI (up 4.20 percent), POL (up 3.90 percent) and PPL (up 3.2 percent).
Auto sales numbers for the month of September clocked in better-than-expected, resultantly investor's interest was seen in the sector. Top performer in the sector was INDU (up 2.1 percent).
Profit-taking was witnessed in the cement sector.
“Moving forward we expect the next session to be volatile as cements and the fertiliser sectors are expected to remain under pressure,” Khan said.
Highest increase was recorded in the shares of Indus Dyeing, which rose by Rs40.27 to Rs1,100.00 per share; followed by Sapphire Fiber that improved by Rs35.20 to Rs746.36 per share.
Major decline was witnessed in the shares of Unilever Food-XD, which fell by Rs150 to Rs7,000 per share; followed by Wyeth Pak Ltd that declined by Rs90 to Rs2,200 per share.
Significant turnover was recorded in the stocks of K-Electric Ltd, TRG Pak Ltd, Jahangir Siddiqui Co, Byco Petroleum, Maple Leaf Cement, Pace (Pak) Ltd, Fauji Cement-XD, Pak Elektron-XD, Dewan Motors and TRG Pak (Right).
K-Electric Ltd remained the volume leader with 23.39 million shares with an increase of 14 paisas to Rs7.37 per share; followed by TRG Pak Ltd with 11.94 million shares with an increase of Rs1.24 to Rs36.71 per share.
Shares’ turnover in the futures market fell to 23.26 million from 47.15 million shares traded in the previous session.