PSX up 1.7pc as investors expect regaining emerging market status

Stocks extended gains on Thursday with the benchmark index closing up more than one percent as investors bet on selected energy and banking scrips to be the main beneficiary of a likely reclassification to MSCI Emerging Market status, dealers said.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark 100-share Index closed higher 623.91 points, or 1.77 percent, to 35,941.47 points. The highest index of the day remained at 35,956.01 points and the lowest level was 35,317.56 points.

KSE 30-share Index increased 473.94 points, or 2.30 percent, to 21,090.67 points.

Turnover, however, fell 29 million shares to 250.95 million shares. Trading value decreased to Rs15.70 billion as against Rs17.24 billion and market capital rose to Rs7.40 trillion as against Rs7.30 trillion recorded in the last session. Of a total of 378 companies, 194 closed up, 157 ended down and 27 remained unchanged.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said bullish activity continued, led by selected scrips across the board on investor expectation on a likely reclassification of PSX to the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Emerging Market status in the review in June. The status was lost in 2008. Mehanti said renewed foreign inflows and upbeat cement sales data played a catalyst role in bullish close.

Analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan at JS Research said OGDC, UBL and MCB were the main movers as they are amongst the most likely companies that would be part of the MSCI EM Index. 

“Interest was seen in the oil and gas sector as global crude oil prices recovered nearly two percent today (Thursday),” Khan said. Top performers were MARI (up five percent) and POL (up 4.16 percent).

Analyst Hammad Aman at Topline Securities said the index gained more than 1,000 points in the last two days, mainly led by banks and oil stocks. “Index is now only 300 points away from its highest ever level,” Aman said.

HBL gained 4.3 percent and Lucky Cement and OGDC closed at their upper limit, contributing 102, 81 and 69 points to the index, respectively.  Heavy activity was observed in Engro Corporation and MCB Bank Limited while gaining between 1.8 percent and 3.7 percent.

Highest increase was recorded in Mari Petroleum XD shares. Its value was up Rs40.12 to Rs842.57/share, followed by Bata (Pak) XD that rose Rs30 to Rs3,400/share. Major decrease was registered in Rafhan Maize SPOT. Its share price was down Rs99.67 to Rs9,000/share, followed by Philip Morris Pak that fell Rs36.15 to Rs1,658.75/share.

Significant turnover was recorded in stocks of PTCL XD, SNGPL, Pak Elektron, Dewan Motors, Dewan Cement, TRG Pak Ltd, KEL, BoP, OGDCL and Fauji Fertilizer.

PTCL XD remained the volume leader with 17.20 million shares with an increase of 57 paisas to Rs15.47/share. It was followed by SNGPL with 16.65 million shares with an increase of 21 paisas to Rs34.46/share.

Shares’ turnover in the future contracts decreased to 51.88 million shares from 54.94 million shares traded in the previous session.