Stocks surge on institutional, foreign buying

Stocks on Friday extended winning streak as institutional buying in oversold shares went into hyperdrive amid fresh foreign inflows, traders said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Share Index gained 573.17 points or 1.23 percent to close at 47,198.29 points, exploring a high of 47,226.11 points and a low of 46,625.12 points.

Khurram Schehzad, Chief Executive Officer at Alpha Beta Core, a research and analytical advisory platform, said institutional participation was there along with buying by individuals.

“There is some confidence, one good IPO has come and overall sentiment has improved”.

Schehzad said earnings were good but there was some pressure related to issues with the IMF (International Monetary Fund).

KSE-30 Shares Index also rose by 176.93 points or 0.95 percent to 18,784.61 points.

Traded shares increased by 31 million 427.44 million from 396.43 million. Trading value was up at Rs18.17 billion, compared to Rs16.53 billion in the last session. Market capital rose to Rs8.255 trillion from Rs8.169 trillion. Out of 528 actives in the session, there were 308 advancers, 203 retreaters, while 17 remained neutral.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Limited said, stocks closed bullish led by scrips across the board on institutional interest in oversold scrips and reports of foreign inflows.

Upbeat data on home remittances of over $2.66 billion in Aug 2021, record surge in cement dispatches by 22.7 percent last month, and POL sales surging by 22 percent year-on-year in July-August 2021 and surging local cement, steel and fertiliser prices set the sentiments on fire.

Unilever Foods XD led the gainers chart, rising Rs1,500 to Rs21,800 per share, followed by Rafhan Maize XD that jumped Rs629 to Rs1,1,479 per share.

Wah-Noble was the loss leader of the day, falling Rs18 to Rs300 per share, followed by AKD Hospitality, down Rs15.01 to close at Rs354.99 per share.

One analyst said the market witnessed upwards momentum for the second consecutive day, as big investors including institutions and individuals purchased shares in the oversold scrips.

The upwards momentum was likely to continue in the next week as well as all the indicators with an exception to rupee-dollar parity, were in the favour of the market, he said.

He added that financial earnings and improvement in the regional political situation would give the market a leg up. Year-on-year auto sales for August 2021 were also encouraging, which would spur positive activity in the sector, the analyst said.

With 39.67 million shares, Azgard Nine recorded the highest trade.

The scrip however fell 25 paisas to Rs24.69 per share. Service Fabrics (R) with 33.53 million shares was the second most trades scrip. It went down by 61 paisas to close Rs2.78 per share.

Stocks that recorded significant turnover included Maple Leaf, Telecard Limited, WorldCall Telecom, TPL Corp Ltd, TRG Pak Ltd, Byco Petroleum, TPL Properties and Treet Corp.

Turnover in the future contracts increased to 135.52

million shares from 126.66 million shares.