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Stocks surge as Pakistan seen safe in FATF meeting

By Our Correspondent
October 08, 2019

Stocks started Monday with a bang in record trade, mostly on hopes that Pakistan will gracefully dodge the bullet at terror financing and money laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) meeting later this week, maintaining its grey-list status, dealers said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index clutched 1.83 percent or 603.50 points to close at 33,636.82 points level, while its KSE-30 index clinched 2.08 percent or 322.70 points to end at 15,815.72 points level.

Of 422 active scrips, 321 ended higher, 84 lower, and 17 were unchanged. Turnover hit 392.157 million shares, as compared with the turnover of 261.816 million shares in the previous session.

Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Limited said, “The market rallied as investors weighed positive reports on FATF compliance amid speculations that Pakistan is highly unlikely to be blacklisted because of its sweeping counter-terror financing efforts”.

Trade hit a record high in the earnings season rally partly on the back of strong cement exports data for September 2014, Mehanti said.

“NAB (National Accountability Bureau) affirmation for lending its assistance in supporting economic growth amid concerns of business community, foreign inflows, and recovery in global crude oil prices made the day for the market today,” Mehanti added.

Samiullah Tariq, director research at Arif Habib Limited, said, “The volumes reached almost one year level, while the traded value hit around eight-month high. The PSX has recovered 17 percent from a low of 28,765 points touched on August 16, 2019.

“Generally, the sentiments are quite optimistic, especially after the meeting of business community with Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa, with expectations the measures taken will set the economy in the right direction,” Samiullah added.

Salman Ahmad, head of institutional sales at Aba Ali Habib Securities, said,” Assurance from the Army Chief in a recent meeting with industrialists and investors is seen bearing fruit and steps decided there are deemed to help improve the situation to a great extent”.

Moreover, the closing of the market above 33,000 points signalled that now, on technical grounds, a room had been created for some recovery, said Ahmad adding that expectation of positive results from some of the companies would also help rehabilitate confidence.

Arif Habib Limited in their market analysis said, “Prime Minister’s visit to China took precedence over Asia-Pacific Group’s (APG) latest release of its report on Pakistan’s compliance with recommended measures to counter AML/CFT, which will also be subject of discussion from mid of October at FATF’s plenary session”.

“Investors are hopeful of PM’s visit to China and believe that the outcome will be positive for Pakistan,” the brokerage added.

The highest gainers were Rafhan Maize, up Rs288.99 close at Rs6200/share, and Unilever Foods, up Rs150 to finish at Rs5800/share. Companies that booked highest losses were Phillip Morris Pakistan, down Rs159.99 to close at Rs3040.00/share, and Pakistan Tobacco, down Rs93 to close at Rs2307.00/share.

Bank of Punjab recorded the highest volumes with a turnover of 39.949 million shares, gaining Rs0.70 to end at Rs9.82/share. With 11.229 million shares, Summit Bank’s turnover was the lowest today, whereas it gained Rs0.23 to end at Rs1.03/share.