Stocks rise over one percent in high turnover

Stocks rose on Thursday in across the board as investors cheered regulator move of relaxing the minimum five percent cash restriction for asset management companies, dealers said

They added that healthy trading activity was witnessed throughout the day and investors were seen taking positions in oil and gas, steel, fertilizer and auto sectors.

“Foreign inflows, robust financial results in oil, banking and auto stocks played a catalytic role in higher close at the PSX (Pakistan Stock Exchange),” said Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said.

The benchmark KSE-100 shares index gained 1.29 percent or 531 points to close at 41,790.16 points. KSE-30 shares index gained 1.26 percent or 266.28 points to close at 21,342.25 points. As many as 387 scrips were active of which 295 advanced, 78 declined and 14 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 161.743 million shares as compared with the turnover of 97.376 million shares a day earlier. An analyst at Elixir Securities said equities surged to end the day with decent gains.

“Latest regulatory change applicable on equity mutual funds, that waived the requirement for maintaining a minimum of 5.0 percent of assets as cash, turned the sentiments positive as participants bet on possible fresh liquidity finding its way into equities.”

Gains were led by Index heavy names such as Habib Bank (up 2.7 percent), Engro Corp (up 3.5 percent), Pakistan Petroleum (up 2.6) percent and Oil & Gas Development company (up 1.2 percent).

However, few notable names like Pakistan Oilfields (down 1.1 percent), MCB Bank (down 0.6 percent), United Bank (down 0.6 percent) and Nishat Chunnian (down 1.0 percent) came under pressure as sellers found an easy exit in them due to higher-than-average turnover.

Interest in second and third tier names also remained strong on retail churning, evident from steep volumes on KSE All shares Index.

Companies reflecting highest gains include Wyeth Pakistan up Rs49.50 to close at Rs1,648/share and Honda Atlas Cars up Rs27.62 to close at Rs580.13/share.

Companies reflecting most losses include Phillip Morris Pakistan down Rs147.83 to close at Rs2,808.84/share and Bata Pakistan down Rs100 to end at Rs2,500/share.

Highest volumes were witnessed in Sui Northern Gas (SNGPL) with a turnover of 10.48 million shares. The scrip gained 71 paisas to close at Rs121.43/share. Aisha Steel was second with a turnover of 9.09 million shares. It gained 97 paisas to close at Rs19.76/share.

Azgard Nine was third with a turnover of 8.67 million shares. It gained Rs1.0 to finish at Rs13.58/share.