Stocks climb 2.6pc on economic data, quarterly earnings

Stocks jumped 2.62 percent on Monday, fueled by a series of upbeat economic data and strong quarterly results from blue-chip companies, while indication of a political settlement of opposition’s protest march also supported sentiment, dealers said.

The first session of the new week sent positive vibes and index after four and half months sailed above 35,000 levels on back of higher cement sales’ number and expectation of a cut in benchmark interest rate, they added.

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index gained 2.62 percent or 899.85 points to close at 35,277.46 points level.

KSE-30 shares index followed suit with a high of 3.04 percent or 487.45 points to end at 16,532.14 points level. Of 370 active scrips, 278 up, 80 retreated, and 12 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 207.782 million shares, as compared with the turnover of 157.118 million shares in the previous session. Investor participation in terms of volume increased 32 percent while traded value was also up by 31.21 percent as compared to previous session.

Salman, head of institutional sales at Aba Ali Habib said IMF backed measures taken by the

government to keep economy on track boosted investors sentiment.

“Moreover political temperature has been cooled down and protest now appeared to be non-event sent positive signals to market.”

Ahmad said the market likely to score more gains in the coming sessions as key macro-economic indicators have been showing positive trends, “with trade deficit has been reduced, current account deficit to go down further and with currency on stable grounds, local bourse to attract fresh investment”.

Khurram Schezad, analyst at capital market said index gained appreciably and crossed 35,000 points levels after many months.

“The decline in interest rates (secondary market yields), sub-siding protest fears, stability in currency parity and improvement on the external account fronts are some of the key reasons for improved confidence.”

Positive sentiment was witnessed in large banks as MCB recorded gain of 4.61 percent, followed by HBL 4.61 percent, and UBL 3 percent in their stock value, cumulatively adding 212 points to the index.

Samiullah Tariq director research at Arif Habib said buying was also supported by reports that political temperature has now been cooled down and “the fear of some untoward incident from

sit in the capital has been fizzled out and soon things would be normal”.

A continuous decline in yields in the government securities in recent week had also made equity market attractive for investment,” Tariq added.

The highest gainers were Mari Petroleum, up Rs39.44 close at Rs1166.62/share, and Siemens Pakistan Rs35.00 to finish at Rs735.00/share. Companies that booked highest losses were Island Textile, down Rs91.73 to close at Rs1743.06/share, and Sapphire Textile own Rs25.40 to close at Rs875.78/share.

Fauji Cement recorded the highest volumes with a turnover of 11.182 billion shares. Whereas the scrip gained Rs0.3 end at Rs16.04/share. The lowest volumes were witnessed in Maple Leaf recording a turnover of 5.167 million shares, whereas the scrip gained Rs1 to end at Rs18.15/share.

FCCL was the market leader followed by HASCOL and BOP which cumulatively added 18 million shares to total volume.