Pakistan stocks gain 444 points over upbeat financial results

KARACHI: The Pakistan bourse closed in the green territory on Wednesday, amid higher trades on financial results speculations and hopes for the release of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) tranche this week.

“Surging global crude oil prices, the data on the 19 per cent year-on-year growth in oil sales in January 2022 and the expectations of positive outcome of the Prime Minister’s visit to China, played a catalyst role in the bullish close,” Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 0.97 per cent, or 444.65 points, to close at 46,119.15 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 0.87 per cent, or 155.39 points, to close at 18,069.22 points.

As many as 381 scrips were active of which 269 advanced, 91 declined and 21 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 360.80 million shares, compared with the turnover of 312.5 million shares in the last trading session.

“The local equity continued its bullish momentum as the IMF board is likely to approve a $1 billion tranche in the meeting scheduled today. Further, the market participant’s interest was kept upward followed by the issuance of $1 billion Sukuk in the international markets,” an analyst at Pearl Securities said.

Going forward, the analysts expect the IMF meeting’s outcome likely to be a key booster for the investor’s sentiment, and suggest investors adopt a buy on dip strategy in the ongoing week.

The companies which reflected the highest gains, included Ismail Ind up Rs32.79 to close at Rs470.07/share, and Mari PetroleumXD up Rs31.89 to close at Rs1,699.90/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses, included Sapphire Textile down Rs21.22 to close at Rs1,001.78/share, and Sapphire Fiber down Rs67.42 to close at Rs831.58/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Hum Network with a turnover of 48.78 million shares. The scrip gained 45 paisas to close at Rs7.65/share, followed by Telecard Limited with a turnover of 28.28 million shares as it gained 77 paisas to close at Rs18.42/share. Treet Corporation remained the third with a turnover of 26.31 million shares. It gained Rs1.37 to finish at Rs42.31/share.