Stocks jump on upbeat June exports

Stocks on Thursday rallied after upbeat June exports drew investors into cyclical, banks, and technology shares, amid strong inflows, traders said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Share Index gained 444.55 points or 0.94 percent to close at 47,800.57 hitting a day high of 47,843.47 points and a low of 47,356.02 points.

Muhammad Arbash, analyst at Topline Securities, said bulls dominated the index on the first day of FY22.

The market opened on a positive note and maintained momentum throughout the day mostly banking on the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement that exports for June 2021 were recorded at $2.7 billion, he said.

Besides, Arbash said after NAB’s (National Accountability Board) nod to power division for processing payments of IPPs of Power Policy 2002 as per the revised contracts, NPL, NCPL, and SPWL closed at their upper locks.

KSE-30 Index also jumped 171.89 points or 0.91 percent to end at 19,133.79 points.

Brokerage Arif Habib Limited in a report said, profit-booking by institutions in the past couple of sessions, after closing FY21 with decent returns, left the institutions with deployable funds that may route back to equities in the coming days.

Buying activity was observed across the board with technology, cement and banking stocks contributing the most, the brokerage said.

It added that positive news on the economic front, including textile sector posting healthy export growth kept the momentum alive.

Turnover increased 18 million shares to 760.0 million against 549.66 million. Trading value stepped up to Rs16.25 billion against Rs15.88 billion. Market capital rose to 8.384 trillion from 8.297 trillion.

Out of 421 active scrips, 302 advanced, 107 declined, while 12 remained unchanged.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said, stocks closed bullish led by scrips across the board amid record surge in global crude oil prices, $2.7 billion record exports data in Jun 2021 and reports of Rs4.7 trillion record tax collection in FY21, easing fiscal deficit.

Rupee recovery amid relief of $1.5 billion deferred oil facility, $4.5 billion IFC new agreement to finance oil, fertiliser imports and over $1.5 billion record remittances in RDAs set up the rally at the apex bourse.

Highest increase was recorded in shares of Unilever Foods, which rose Rs616.25 to Rs16,990 per share, followed by Colgate Palmolive, up Rs144.97 to close Rs2,644.97 per share. Major decline was noted in shares of Wyeth Pak Ltd, down Rs43.55 to Rs2,085.44 per share, followed by Bata (Pak) losing Rs42.13 to end at Rs1,672.27/ share.

Moreover, June 2021 CPI inflation clocked in at 9.7 percent year-on-year, slightly lower than street expectation further garnering investor interest. LUCK and PPL were the major gainers contributing 95 points to the index.

WorldCall Telecom led volumes with 199.48 million shares, gaining 14 paisas to close at Rs4.10 per share. It was followed by Silk Bank Ltd that posted 51.43 million shares losing one paisa to finish at Rs2 per share.

Shares’ turnover in the future contracts improved to 85.77 million shares from 80.71 million traded in the previous session.