Stocks hit 13-month high led by hydrocarbon heavyweights

Stocks on Monday finally made it over 41,000-point mark to finish at their highest in almost 13 months, fueled by a rally in oil and gas blue chips, as hopes of likely facilitative measures from friendly lender countries set the sentiments on fire amid strong fundamentals, dealers said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) KSE-100 shares index jumped 1.78 percent or 728.29 points to close at 41,644.88 points, while its KSE-30 index soared 1.88 percent or 349.73 points to end at 18,969.00 points.

Topline Securities, in its daily market review said, today the benchmark index reached its highest level in this calendar year to date. “The positive momentum largely continued over the weekend, fueled by expected rollover of deposit amounting $5 billion from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates,” the brokerage said.

Today, of 391 active scrips, 276 stepped up, 96 slipped, and 19 were unchanged, while turnover improved 32 percent on a day-on-day basis to 357.788 million shares, compared to 270.713 million shares in the previous session.

Samiullah Tariq, director research at Arif Habib Limited, said, “The continued support from foreign fund houses in debt market and improvement in the foreign exchange reserves boosted the confidence of the investors at the stock market”.

Tariq said investors also cheered the government plan to allocate almost Rs5.2 trillion worth of public sector development, hinting the authorities were aiming to create jobs and strengthen economy.

“Moreover, the release of about Rs298 billion for the public sector development during the current fiscal year also underpinned the sentiment.” Khurram Schezad, senior capital market expert, said, “The market continues to recover as secondary market yields fell, thereby inducing investors to revert to equities, especially given the stability in currency parity and the overall macros of the country”.

Salman Ahmad, head of institutional sales at Aba Ali Habib Securities, said, “Exploration and production sector, having heavy weightage in the index, lifted the market above 41,500 points amid strong volumes”.

Ahmad said, activity in the exploration and production sector was mainly due to the government’s plan to sell shares in PPL (Pakistan Petroleum Limited) and OGDC (Oil and Gas Development Company) to Russian investors.

The government intends to sell around 10 percent shares in both the companies. “With the index closing above 41,500 points hints the index has more room for improvement,” Ahamad added.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Corporations said bullish activity continues as investors weighed Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) grant over rollover of $5 billion deposits, easing fiscal pressure, surging global equities, and rising international crude oil prices.

“Decreasing political noise and FATF (Financial Action Task Force) concerns, likely resolution of circular debt issue through tariff revisions and issuance of Rs700 billion ijara sukuk next month, waning concerns over fiscal deficit, gave the market a much-needed thrust,” Mehanti added.

The highest gainers were Nestle Pakistan, rising Rs380 to close at Rs8,480/share, and Rafhan Maize, jumping Rs100 to finish at Rs7,300/share. The top losers were Sapphire Textile, sliding Rs49.99 to close at Rs1010/share, and Sapphire Fiber, slipping Rs46.84 to close at Rs890.15/share.

Hascol Petrol recorded the highest volumes with 53.275 million shares, gaining Rs1 to end at Rs13.66/share, while the lowest were witnessed in K-Electric Limited, which posted a turnover of 7.165 million shares, strengthening by Rs0.1 to end at Rs4.50/share.