Stocks top 45,000 points led by financials

Stocks on Thursday crossed 45,000 points mark led by financial sector that stole the spotlight mainly on record yearly growth in banks' deposits and prospects of rewarding corporate results, dealers said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index gained 0.42 percent or 191.12 points to close at 45,344.54 points. Volumes decreased to 641.437 million shares, from 664.538 million shares on Wednesday.

KSE-30 shares index also hit a high of 0.46 percent or 86.57 points to end at 19,008.24 points level.

Topline Securities in a note said equities extended gains, initially led by financials where UBL, HBL, BAHL and MEBL were the major gainers; however, some profit taking in the later half on weighed on the gains.

Muhammad Saeed Khalid, head of research at Shajar Capital said the market remained bullish during the session, mainly on the approval of waiver on Custom Duties by the ECC.

This improved volumetric activity in the construction and textile stocks which helped the index hit an intra-day high of 467 points, he said.

Oil and power sectors again contributed to the intraday volumetric activity, led by mainly KAPCO and BYCO where “we

have noticed intra-day volume of 95 million shares and 32 million shares respectively,” Khalid

added.

Salman Ahmad, head of institutional sales at Aba Ali Habib Securities said the market continued to show strength on healthy economic indicators and crude oil prices that crossed $50 a barrel.

Moreover, hectic activity was witnessed in textile sector after government announced to reduce customs duties on 142 products.

The exports numbers also encouraged investors, indicating manufacturing activities were pace slowly, he said.

Of 407 active scrips, 168 gained, 222 lost, and 17 remained unchanged.

Yawar-Uz-Zaman, head of research at Pearl Securities said banking sector guided the market upward amid substantial rise in deposits (up 17 percent in CY20, showing highest growth of 4-years) and upcoming hefty payouts along with the financial results.

However, profit-taking was witnessed in other sectors on account of ongoing protests over Quetta terrorism, he said.

“We expect the market to move both ways and recommend investors to take exposure in power, oil & gas, fertiliser, and cements Friday,” Zaman added.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed record higher led by selected scrips across the board and surge in global crude oil prices.

Foreign inflows, speculations ahead of financial result announcements, and proposed New Textile Policy influenced sentiments.

Upbeat economic data on single digit CPI inflation, double digit exports growth in December, 2.5 percent upside in projected GDP growth for FY21, double digit growth in POL and cement sales during December gave stocks a boost, Mehanti added.

The top gainers were Indus Dyeing, up Rs40 to close at Rs577/share, and Premium Textile, up Rs19.12 to finish at Rs274.12/share.

Atlas Honda Limited, down Rs20 to close at Rs500/share, and Gillette Pakistan, losing Rs16.81 to close at Rs410.05/share, were the main losers.

Byco Petroleum saw the highest trades with 94.868 million shares, gaining Rs0.02 to end at Rs9.81/share. Unity Foods Limited recorded the lowest trade with 13.231 million shares, losing Rs0.47 to end at Rs31.51/share.