Pakistan equity market remains bullish, KSE-100 Index gains 216 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market started the day on a dull note, as the Federal Cabinet again delayed the approval of the refinery policy bill and rescheduled it for Thursday, dealers said.

“Late recovery was seen at the bourse, as refinery policy draft has been finalised and waiting for the government’s green signal, which resulted in most of the refinery stock to close near [the] upper circuit breaker,” An analyst at Pearl Securities said.

“Additionally, investors’ interest remained upbeat, owing to the year-end closing phenomenon, which resulted in improved activities in the last trading hours.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 0.49 per cent, or 216.37 points, to close at 44,260.11 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 0.46 per cent, or 80.05 points, to close at 17,368.84 points.

As many as 361 scrips were active, of which 199 advanced, 141 declined and 21 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 271.11 million shares, compared with the turnover of 143.4 million shares in the last trading session.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said the stocks closed higher led by oil and cement scrips on the surge in global crude oil prices and upbeat data on cement exports.

“Speculations over the proposed mini-budget announcements played a catalytic role in the bullish activity ahead of the year-end close.”

Going forward, analysts expect range-bound activity to continue and recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy in the cement and banking sectors.

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Colgate Palmolive, up Rs141.01 to close at Rs2,455/share; and Sapphire Textile, up Rs61.5 to close at Rs881.5/share.

The companies, which reflected the most losses included Bata Pakistan, down Rs119.99 to close at Rs2,099.99/share; and Sapphire Textile, down Rs66.26 to close at Rs998/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Cnergyco PK with a turnover of 47.42 million shares. The scrip gained 58 paisas to close at Rs6.89/share; followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 14.75 million shares. It gained two paisas to close at Rs2.05/share. K-Electric remained the third with a turnover of 13.55 million shares. It gained 16 paisas to finish at Rs3.42/share.