KARACHI: The Pakistan’s equity market continued to witness a bullish session with stable volumes as the central bank’s reserves hit an over four-year high after the country received $1 billion Eurobond proceeds, though, the market is still suffering from the political uncertainty in Afghan region and accumulating Covid cases, dealers said.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said after consolidating in the past couple of sessions, the index regained confidence and added a total of 246 points, on the back of the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and otherwise the technology sector.

“Profit-booking brought the index down by the end of [the] session. Cement, fertiliser and refinery sectors bore selling pressure, whereas steel, chemicals and banking sector stocks contributed positively to the index. Flat steel players Amreli Steel and International Steel increased prices today, which prompted an uptick in both the stock prices.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index gained 0.29 per cent, or 136.79 points, to close at 47,628.26 points. The KSE-30 shares index gained 0.39 per cent, or 73.33 points, to close at 19,118.99 points.

As many as 425 scrips were active, of which 234 advanced, 174 declined and 17 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 506.29 million shares, compared with the turnover of 508.28 million shares in the last trading session.

Muhammad Mubashar at JS Global Capital said that the bulls pulled the KSE-100 to an intraday high of 47,737 points where some profit-taking was seen, eventually leading the market to close at 47,628 level, up 137 points.

“Going forward, dips in the market cannot be ruled out in the light of the rising Covid cases and subsequent restrictions. We recommend investors to adopt a buy on dips strategy in cement, banks, and E&P sectors.”

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks close higher on a strong earnings outlook. “Oil stocks battered on slump in [the] global crude oil prices and weak global equities.”

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Wyeth Pakistan, up Rs150.37 to close at Rs2,155.37/share; and Unilever Foods, up Rs140 to close at Rs16,489/share.

The companies, which reflected the most losses included Rafhan Maize, down Rs450 to close at Rs9,950/share; and Pakistan Tobacco, down Rs71.17 to end at Rs1,226.83/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 50.82 million shares. The scrip shed 7 paisas to close at Rs3.35/share; followed by K-Electric with the turnover of 38.93 million shares. It gained 15 paisas to close at Rs4.06/share. TPL Corp was the third with a turnover of 36.35 million shares. It gained 68 paisas to finish at Rs24.47.

Also Read

FBR asks ceramic tile retailers to install POS machines

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday asked the retailers...