Stocks extend rally; bank, oil firms lend support

Stocks extended a rally to a second day on Wednesday, on growing expectations for an interest rate hike in the upcoming monetary policy meeting after four percent devaluation in rupee, dealers said.

“Equities continued their bullish spree for the second consecutive day where banking sector maintained its top contributor’s position and added 274 points to index gains,” brokerage Topline Securities said in its post market note. Oil and gas sector added 25 points to index as crude oil prices were up.”

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index gained 0.76 percent or 336.21 points to close at 44,645.95 points. KSE-30 shares index gained 0.86 percent or 191.73 points to close at 22,365.51 points. As many as 389 scrips were active of which 190 advanced, 179 declined and 20 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 207.07 million shares as compared with the turnover of 219.909 million shares a day earlier.

Analysts said exploration and fertilisers also kept positive momentum, as investors also built their positions in large cap scrips.

“Equities inched upwards on newfound momentum post rupee depreciation; however, market activity was lower as compared to previous day’s trade,” analyst Ali Raza at Elixir Securities said.

Among key sectors, financials, up 2.1 percent, topped the leader-board with index heavyweight Habib Bank, up 3.4 percent, contributing almost one-third positive points to the index on institutional interest. Fertilizers, up 1.1 percent, closed positive over news flow pertaining to new fertilizer policy on the cards that is expected to benefit both farmers and manufacturers.

Exploration, up 0.4 percent was also in limelight following sharp overnight gains in global crude. On the flip side, cements (down 0.4 percent), steels (0.7 percent) and autos (0.7 percent) remained under pressure due to expected increase in production costs.

Going forward, analysts expect volatile and flows-driven market with financials and E&Ps likely seeing profit-taking at highs.

Companies reflecting highest gains include Unilever Foods up Rs42.5 to close at Rs9,855/share and Ghandhara Industries up Rs41.13 to close at Rs863.8/share.

Companies reflecting most losses include Bata Pakistan down Rs88.82 to close at Rs2,765.55/share and Pakistan Tobacco down Rs24.75 to end at Rs1,975/share.

Highest volumes were witnessed in Lotte Chemical with a turnover of 16.49 million shares. The scrip gained 28 paisas to close at Rs10.37/share.

TRG Pakistan was second with a turnover of 14.84 million shares. It gained Rs1.51 paisas to close at Rs38.32/share. Sui Southern Gas was third with a turnover of 13.405 million shares. It shed Rs1.34 to close at Rs38.13.