Stocks closed over half a percent higher on Thursday as beaten-up valuations made some shares a tempting prospect for institutional investors, dealers said.
They added that stocks consolidated gains on institutional cherry-picking in cement, auto, and chemical sectors.
“Index remained in positive territory for the third consecutive day as attractive valuations continued to outweigh political noise and macroeconomic woes,” Topline Securities said in a post market note.
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index rose 0.73 percent or 288.36 points to close at 39,875.12 points, while KSE-30 shares index gained 0.85 percent or 165.06 points to finish at 19,658.57 points.
As many as 333 scrips were active in the session. Out of that total, 191 advanced, 125 retreated, and 17 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 108.897 billion shares compared to a turnover of 128.425 billion shares the previous session.
Cement sector has once again come in the limelight following apex court’s intervention regarding the construction of dams and central bank’s proactive measures to facilitate fundraising for the same through donations at national level.
Auto sector, under the lead of Indus Motors, Atlas Honda and Pak Suzuki, revved up as all these companies recorded an increase by Rs50, Rs9.86, and Rs3.15 per share respectively. Strong auto numbers showing a growth of 21 percent during the last fiscal year where more than 250,000 units were sold also helped the morale get into high gear.
Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Corporations said equities staged some recovery in the earnings season drawing strength from institutional buying in blue chip stocks after an upbeat State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) third quarterly report showed the real GDP growth stood at 5.8 percent in FY2018.
“Worries over a ballooning trade deficit that yawned to $37.67 billion in July-June 2018 and falling global crude oil prices kept investors under pressure during mid-session,” Mehanti added.
Zeeshan Afzal, executive director at Insight Securities, said they were expecting some economic slowdown with growth falling to 4.8 percent in FY2019, along with 11 percent more currency devaluation, policy rate hike of 200 basis points to 8.5 percent by December 2018 and upward adjustment of energy and utilities prices to reduce fiscal burden. The highest gainers were Colgate Palmolive, up Rs140.00 to close at Rs2940.00/share, and Phillip Morris Pakistan, up Rs89.49 to finish at Rs2770.00/share.
The top losers were Pakistan Tobacco, down Rs104.36 to close at Rs2070.63/share, and Otsuka Pakistan, down Rs14.33 to close at Rs272.75/share.
TRG Pakistan Limited recorded the highest volumes with a turnover of 4.174 million shares. The scrip gained Rs0.26 to close at Rs26.29/share. It was followed by Engro Polymer with a turnover of 4.694 million shares with its scrip gaining Rs0.62 to close at Rs28.45/share.
The lowest volumes were witnessed in Fauji Cement, recording a turnover of 5.204 million shares and losing Rs0.4 to end at Rs20.60/share.
