Stocks close record high as quarterly reports roll in

Stocks gained over one percent to climb to a record high on Thursday as solid corporate earnings helped drive share prices higher, dealers said.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Limited said stocks closed all time high levels, led by scrips across the board after the Supreme Court ordered to serve notices to all parties on Panama papers issues, thus easing political uncertainty in the country.

 Mehanti said the NEPRA’s approval of increase in power tariff, surge in global crude prices near $51/barrel and strong earnings reports by banking and oil firms played catalyst role in record close.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index gained 1.52 percent or 621.81 points to close at 41,545.95 points. The highest index of the day remained at 41,688.50 points, while the lowest level of the day was recorded at 40,924.14 points. KSE-30 Index also increased by 371.25 points to close at 22,637.16 points.

Turnover increased by 55 million shares to 561.92 million shares, trading value rose to Rs18.67 billion from Rs12.45 billion, while market capital expanded to Rs8.47 trillion against Rs8.36 trillion. Out of 455 companies’ active in the session, 325 closed in green, 116 in red, while 14 remained unchanged.

 Ahmed Saeed Khan, analyst at JS Research, said the rally was led by the oil sector after the global crude oil prices hold near a 15 month high. OGDC (up 2.26 percent) and PPL (up 4.56 percent) were the biggest index movers of the sector.

Similarly buying in the banking sector was also witnessed on the back of better-than-expected results. BAHL and HBL reported EPS of Rs4.88/share and Rs17.47/share, respectively. Those were better than the market expectations.

Rally was also witnessed in the auto sector, where Atlas Honda Ltd (up 2.62 percent) and Indus Motors (up 5.0 percent) were the biggest index movers of the sector. “Investors, overall, disregarded the rising political noise and built fresh positions and positivity on the last trading session is also expected,” Khan said.  

 Highest increase was recorded in shares of Nestle Pakistan, which rose by Rs200 to Rs8,000/share, followed by Rafhan Maize that increased by Rs150 to Rs7,850/share. Major decline was noted in shares of Bhanero Textile XD, which fell by Rs43.25 to Rs821.75/share, followed by Ferozsons (Lab) XD that decreased by Rs39.64 to Rs850.41/share.

Significant turnover was recorded in stocks of Bank of Punjab, Dost Steel (R), Japan Power, Pace (Pak) Ltd, K-Electric Ltd, TRG Pak Ltd, TPL Trakker Ltd XD, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, Aisha Steel Mill and Engro Polymer.

 Bank of Punjab remained the volume leader with 68.44 million shares with an increase of 85 paisas to Rs18.30/share. It was followed by Dost Steel (R) with 49.25 million shares with a drop of three paisas to Rs3.88/share.

Shares’ turnover in the future contracts increased to 78.11 million shares from 54.87 million shares traded in the previous session.