Stocks mint third day of gains as earnings pick up

Stocks rose for a third straight session on Wednesday as earnings season heated up while blue-chip shares also kept bouncing back, dealers said.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed higher on strong earnings outlook in the leveraged cement, fertilizer and auto scrips. “Investor speculations on the newly elected prime minister’s ambitious vision announcements following, upbeat global equities and strong corporate results played a catalytic role in bullish close.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange benchmark KSE-100 shares gained 0.89 percent or 415.61 points to close at 46,949.04 points. KSE-30 shares index gained 1.11 percent or 267.12 points to close at 24,426.50 points. As many as 406 scrips were active of which 286 advanced, 101 declined and 19 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 367.796 million shares as compared with the turnover of 256.143 million shares a day earlier. An analyst at Elixir Securities said market opened positive and stocks carried momentum and helped benchmark Index to propel towards 47K level. 

“Financials lent most support on institutional interest where Habib Bank, up 2.9 percent bounced back and led gains after it dropped by over 8.0 percent in previous two sessions on rumors of its NY branch being penalised on non-compliance of local regulations.”

Cements also fetched interest and traded higher with Lucky Cements, up 2.8 percent and DG Khan, up 1.6 percent, fetching most interest.

On the other hand, oils generally closed lower tracking overnight dip in global crude barring Pakistan State Oil (PSO), which likely gained on prospective of becoming Shariah compliant after receipt of cash against PIBs and retirement of short-term debt.

Steel sector continued its positive trend due to revised custom valuations on imported steel, favoring local steel manufacturers.

Going forward, analysts expect index seeing resistance as it attempts to cross 47K while earnings and payouts will keep interest in wider market alive and institutional flows will guide direction.

Companies reflecting highest gains include Sanofi Aventis up Rs91.23 to close at Rs1915.84/share and Service Industries up Rs42.79 to close at Rs1359/share.

Companies reflecting most losses include Sapphire Textile down Rs46 to close at Rs1800/share and Millat Tractors down Rs24.66 to end at Rs1372.71/share.  

Highest volumes were witnessed in K-Electric with a turnover of 29.457 million shares.

The scrip gained 23 paisas to close at Rs6.93/share. Bank of Punjab was second with a turnover of 24.037 million shares. It gained 09 paisas to close at Rs11.36/share. TRG Pakistan was third with a turnover of 23.311 million shares. It gained Rs2.13 to finish at Rs45.85/share.