Stocks rebounded on Tuesday after two sessions of decline, with financial and fertilizer sectors leading the pack, as investors snapped up shares that were dragged by concerns of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)’s benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 0.58 percent or 263 points to close at 45,345.6 points.
Volumes fell 29.8 percent to 242.3 million shares while traded value also decreased by 40.1 percent to $ 44.9 million.
Dealers said stocks opened on a negative note but rebounded to close higher in the second half of trading on the back of positive sentiments in fertilizer due to expected price hike in urea and power sector, paid payments by government.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Crop said global crude oil prices, robust housing finance data, timely payments to IPP and rupee stability also helped market to close on bullish note.
“Stocks closed higher in the earnings season rally at PSX led by scrips across the board on expectations ahead of major financial results due next week,” Mehanti said.
Sectors contributing to the performance included banks (+108 points), fertilizer (+points), power (+46 points), E&P (36 points) and engineering (+11 points). Brokerage Arif Habib Limited (AHL) in a market note stated that index closed in the green zone as investors became optimistic about IMF’s Executive Board meeting on January 12. “Profit taking was witnessed in the first trading hour as coronavirus positivity ratio exceeded 2 percent in a single day for the first time since October 14 last year.”
It said fertilizer sector remained in the limelight due to expectation of price hike of urea in the market and cement sector remained under pressure due to the uptick in international coal prices.
Activity continued to remain side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the third tier stocks.
Topline Securities in its post-trading note said the index opened on a negative note as it declined to an intraday low of 113 points, led by TRG as it closed on its lower circuit for second consecutive day on news that Zia Chisti has presented himself for upcoming director`s election, despite the on-going investigation of harassment against him.
However, market gained momentum in the second half.
Major contribution to the index came from HUBC, SYS, EFERT, FFC and UBL, as they cumulatively contributed 179 points to the index.
TELE was today`s volume leader with 26 million shares.
Darson Securities bourse closed on optimistic note from the preceding day’s dreadful activities and a buying spree later the day propelled the bourse into green zone.
Sentiment was supported by the government’s decision that no Covid-induced lockdown was planned despite a surge in the single-day tally of new cases, the brokerage stated.
The KSE-All Share trading activity descended as compared to the last trading session as the ready market volume
stood at 240 million shares a s compared to the last trading session of 344 million shares.