PSX closes higher after two-day sell off; bargain-hunters pull up stocks

Stocks closed higher on Thursday after two sessions of declines as investors took confidence from timely debt repayment talks while value managers picked up bargains on low price-to-book stocks, traders said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share index increased 1.19 percent or by 467.93 points to close at 39,747.36 points against 39,279.43 points recorded in the last session. Intraday high was 39,747.36 points while the lowest level of the day was recorded at 39,207.21 points.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks “showed sharp recovery near the year-end close” as the finance minister affirmed that the government would complete the IMF programme and would also subvert default as it had arranged “$31 billion funding required to pay foreign debt”.

PM orders on austerity under the NEEC energy conservation plan and PTI’s projections over no immediate fresh polls played a catalytic role in the bullish close, he added.

KSE-30 index went up 1.08 percent or 156.61 points to close at 14,617.60 points from 14,460.99 points recorded in the last session.

Traded shares decreased by 31 million shares to 227.788 million shares from 258.454 million shares. The trading value dropped to Rs7.037 billion from Rs8.508 billion. Market capital expanded to Rs6.382 trillion from Rs6.306 trillion. Out of 325 companies active in the session, 214 closed in green, 93 in red and 18 remained unchanged.

Muhammad Arbash, an analyst at Topline Securities, said equities closed positively on Thursday where the index settled at 39,747 points (up 1.19 percent). “Range-bound activity has been witnessed in the first half of the session, however, the market made a high of 467 points in the second half,” he added.

A major contribution to the index came from Systems Limited, Lucky Cement, Engro, Engro Fertilizers and Pakistan Services, which cumulatively added 238 points.

The highest increase was recorded in the shares of Rafhan Maize, up Rs592.65 to close at Rs8,494.65/share, followed by Nestle Pakistan, up Rs366.24 to close at Rs5,781.24/share. A significant decline was noted in the shares of Bhanero Tex, down Rs77.50 to end at Rs960/share, followed by Premium Tex, down Rs44.20 to end at Rs557.05/share.

Brokerage Arif Habib Ltd said a bullish session was witnessed at the PSX continuing the acclamatory momentum from the previous close. “The market opened in positive territory and made an intraday high of 441.56 points as investors elected for value angling in the main board,” it reported.

The KSE-100 traded in the green zone throughout the day, as investor participation remained on the higher side. In the last trading hour though the market remained quite volatile. Healthy volumes were recorded across the board, whereas third-tier stocks remained volume leaders.

Sectors contributing to the performance included cements (+93.4 points), technology and communication (+89.4 points), fertilisers (+69.3 points), E&Ps (+39.4 points), and miscellaneous (+36.8 points).

Bank Al-Falah remained the volume leader with 52.190 million shares. Its scrip increased by 28 paisas to stand at Rs29.88/share. It was followed by K-Electric with 20.118 million shares that closed higher by 12 paisas to end at Rs2.49/share.

Other stocks that recorded significant turnover included Cnergyico, WorldCall Telecom, Bank of Punjab, Pak Refinery, Pak Petroleum, TPL Properties, Al-Shaheer CorpXR and Nishat Mills Ltd.

Shares’ turnover in the future contracts decreased to 144.047 million shares from 228.507 million shares.