Stocks on Tuesday rose from Monday’s ashes in tight trade as renewed IMF loan bets touched off bargain-hunting in oversold stocks, traders said.
Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Shares Index gained 111.22 points or 0.26 percent to close the day at 43,504.36 points with the highest and the lowest intraday levels being 43,646.93 and 43,261.98 points.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks showed recovery on speculations ahead of SBP (State Bank of Pakistan) policy announcement and a positive outcome of the IMF review meeting due next week.
Institutional support in select oversold fertiliser, banking, and oil stocks and hopes of likely release of a $1 billion IMF tranche under $8 billion EFF (Extended Fund Facility) helped buoy the stocks, Mehanti said.
KSE-30 Shares Index, however, dropped by 12.52 points or 0.08 percent to 16,513.96 points.
Darson Securities in a post-market note said the local equity bourse staged a rebound and resumed its uptrend on bargain hunting.
The market started off with a loss; however, later in the session huge buying seen in heavyweights, which propelled the benchmark index into green zone, the brokerage said.
Moreover, KSE-All Shares also ascended as compared to the last trading session as the ready market volume reached 234 million shares.
Traded volume shrank by 72 million shares to 233.85 million from 305.20 million shares, while value dropped to Rs6.864 billion from Rs9.238 billion.
Turnover in the future contracts fell to 72.89 million shares from 107.18 million.
Market capital slightly improved to Rs7.220 trillion from Rs7.214 trillion.
Out of 337 active scrips in the session, 151 moved higher, 163 lower, while 23 stayed unchanged.
Muhammad Waqar Iqbal, an analyst at JS Research, said the stocks traded in a tight range.
“Going forward, we expect range-bound activity to continue and recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy in the cement and textile sectors for short term trades,” Iqbal suggested.
Tuesday’s best gainer, Colgate Palmolive, rose Rs146.86 to Rs2,197.86 per share, while he second top performer, Nestle Pakistan, increased Rs93.76 to Rs5,800.01 per share.
Unilever Foods, which turned out to be the worst-hit stock, lost Rs213 to settle down at Rs25,000 per share, followed by Bata (Pak), down Rs159.92 to end at Rs2,080 per share.
Topline Securities in its daily market review said it was a mixed session.
Stocks opened on a negative note and made an intraday low of -131 points from where value hunting kicked in, supporting the benchmark to hit an intraday high of 254 points, the brokerage said.
Technology, chemical, fertiliser, exploration and production, and power stocks contributed positively to the index.
TRG, COLG, ENGRO, POL and HUBC added 120 points, cumulatively, while SYS, UBL, and MTL together lost 49 points to profit-taking, the Topline report added.
Cnergyico PK led the volume chart with 19.092 million shares, followed by Pakistan Refinery that gathered a turnover of 13.867 million shares.
Trade volume also found significant support from Pakistan Int. Bulk, Lotte Chemical, Telecard Limited, TPL Properties, Ghani Global Holding, Treet Corp, WorldCall Telecom and Maple Leaf.