Stocks swing up led by oversold names

Stocks on Thursday reclaimed over half of the ground lost a day ago led by oversold names with hopes of successful loan programme review running high, traders said.

KSE-100 Shares Index, the key gauge of the country’s capital market, jumped 532.86 points or 1.20 percent to 44,899.60 points after a massacre of over two percent on Wednesday.

It tested a high of 44,899.60 points and a low of 43,972.09 points during the trading session at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the apex bourse.

Topline Securities in its daily market review said continuing its bearish trend market opened on a negative note, falling as low as 395 points.

However, sharp recovery was observed in the closing hours of the trade, with major support of 348 points coming from MEBL, KEL, PPL, OGDC and LUCK, the brokerage said.

KSE-30 Shares index also gained 204 points or 1.17 percent to reach 17,660.61 points.

Traded shares, however, decreased 96 million to 372.43 million, while trading value also dropped to Rs13.75 billion from Rs16.39 billion. Market capital grew to Rs7.80 trillion from Rs7.70 trillion. Out of 557 actives there were 385 advancers, 157 retreaters, and 15 neutrals.

Arif Habib Corp’s Ahsan Mehanti said stocks showed made a keen recovery led by scrips across the board at the quarter end close on strong earnings outlook.

Higher global crude oil prices and speculations on likely release of $1 billion International Monetary Fund loan programme next week fired up the sentiment, Mehanti said.

In terms of gains, Nestle Pakistan was the best performing stock as it surged Rs308.13 to Rs6,035.80/share, followed by Bata Pakistan that jumped Rs109.84 to Rs1,773.41/share.

Colgate PalmXB was the worst loser of the day, falling Rs113.89 to Rs2,207.11/share, followed by Philip Morris Pakistan that lost Rs35.69 to settle down at Rs764.31/share.

In its monthly stock market review, Topline Securities said KSE-100 Shares Index declined by 5.3 percent during the outgoing month, making it the worst month after March 2020.

Major events during the month were: S&P reaffirmed Pakistan's long- and short-term sovereign credit at B- and B respectively and retained its stable outlook on the economy; CPI inflation for August 2021 clocked in at 8.4 percent year-on-year; country’s trade deficit for August soared 133 percent to $4.055 billion year-on-year; and MSCI decided to downgrade Pakistan from Emerging Market to Frontier Market.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index has 3 constituents from Pakistan namely HBL, MCB and LUCK, whereas MSCI Frontier Markets Index is simulated to have 4 constituents – with OGDC being the additional constituent.

K-Electric Ltd led volumes chart with 32.48 million shares. It gained 69 paisas to rise to Rs4.0/share. The second highest traded stock was Byco Petroleum with 29.76 million shares. It also grew by 45 paisas to Rs8.18/share.

Stocks that recorded notable turnovers were Azgard Nine, WorldCall Telecom, Dolmen City, Telecard Limited, Hum Network, Unity Foods Ltd, TPL Corp Ltd, and Ghani Global Holding.

Turnover in the future contracts shrank to 110.15 million shares from 158.67 million on Wednesday.