Stocks caromed higher on Thursday fueled by refineries, seen posting strong earnings next week, with rupee mostly anchoring the sentiments of investors, traders said.
Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Shares Index closed higher by 318.93 points or 0.69 percent to 46,484.43 points after testing a high of 46,510.11 and a low of 46,053.66 points.
Muhammad Arbash, an equity dealer at Topline Securities, said the market remained range-bound in the first half; however, it picked up momentum in the second.
Investors were mostly into fertilisers, refinery, and cement sectors, pushing ENGRO, ATRL, and MLCF to close higher, he added.
Arbash said EPCL closed at its upper limit on expectations of hefty earnings and payout in its upcoming result announcement.
KSE-30 Shares Index also gained 135.44 points or 0.76 percent to end at 17,899.59 points.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp credited the rally to rupee recovery, robust car sales, and high private sector credit for March 2022.
Improving Pakistan-US relations, higher global crude oil prices, and speculations over the likely release of the next IMF tranche kept the stocks buoyant, Mehanti said.
Trade volume increased 20 million shares to 494.94 million from 474.58 million shares, whereas value dropped to Rs11.680 billion from Rs12.353 billion.
Turnover in the futures’ contracts increased to 141.40 million shares from 132.46 million shares.
Market capital expanded to Rs7.737 trillion from Rs7.694 trillion. Out of 343 active names in the session, 206 rose, 118 fell, while 19 ended without a change.
According to Neelam Naz at JS Research, the refinery sector outperformed for the day with a 20 percent contribution to the total trade volume on reports regarding approval of refinery policy.
“Going forward, we recommend investors to sell on strength as the market approaches the 47,000 points level,” Naz said.
Nestle Pakistan walked away with the best gains of the day after jumping Rs104.99 to Rs5,549.99/share. It was followed by farm automaker Al-Ghazi Tractors that ploughed ahead to gain Rs31.63 to close at Rs453.38/share.
Footwear brand Bata (Pakistan) was the most whipped stock of the day as its value wore off by Rs179.99/share to Rs2,220.01, while consumer product giant Colgate Palmolive that shed Rs97.77 to end at Rs2,222.23/share was the second most battered name.
Arif Habib Ltd analysts said rupee stability as well as recovery against dollar was one of the major drivers of the day.
Refinery sector rallied due to the expectation of tremendous earnings in the upcoming financial result, the brokerage said.
It added that mainboard activity was dull and third tier stocks saw a huge investor interest.
A sweeping buying spree in the last trading hour landed the market in the green zone, Arif Habib analysts said.
Overseas workers remitted the highest ever amount of $2.81 billion in March 2022, largely due to the Ramadan factor, up by a whopping 28 percent month-on-month, according to the central bank. Whereas, year-on-year, remittances in March grew by around 3.2 percent.
Cnergyico PK powered Thursday’s turnover with a trade of 99.12 million shares, only to be trailed by WorldCall Telecom that saw its 36.94 million shares changing hands.
Other major volume-contributors were Flying Cement, Telecard Limited, Maple Leaf, G3 Technologies, Pak Refinery, Treet Corp, Ghani Global Holdings, and Hum Network.