Equity market closes up on IMF agreement

KARACHI: The Pakistan bourse closed in a green zone on rupee recovery amid the government reaching staff level agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the government’s decision to reduce petroleum products prices and a slump in the global crude oil prices reducing economic crises played a catalyst role in the bullish close.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 1.16 per cent, or 486.14 points, to close at 42,348.91 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 1.26 per cent, or 201.28 points, to close at 16,164.93 points.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the market carried yesterday’s positive sentiments after the official announcement regarding the government and the IMF reaching staff level agreement which will unlock $1.2 billion disbursement.

“Initially, the market opened on a positive note and stayed in the green zone during the whole day. Investors opted to continue value hunting across the board in anticipation of stability on the macro front post IMF programme resumption,” he added.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the market had a positive session closing in the green territory led by the official confirmation of the staff-level agreement between Pakistan and the IMF.

“The fund will release $1.18 billion in the next installment, bringing total disbursements under the programme to about $4.2 billion. The news of fresh dollar inflows strengthened the rupee. Additionally, positive sentiment prevailed as the local fuel prices are expected to be lowered today,” he added.

Going forward, the analysts expect the market to perform well due to the clarity of the IMF programme. Hence, recommending investors adopt the “buy on dip” strategy in the upcoming sessions.

As many as 330 scrips were active of which 198 advanced, 101 declined and 31 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 227.84 million shares, compared with the turnover of 164.82 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Nestle Pakistan up Rs150 to close at Rs6,000/share, Mari Petroleum up Rs30.60 to close at Rs1,770.29/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses included Colgate Palm down Rs95 to close at Rs2,100/share, and Bata (Pak) down Rs20 to close at Rs2,350/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in K-Electric with a turnover of 32.15 million shares. The scrip gained 16 paisas to close at Rs3.08/share, followed by TPL Properties with a turnover of 14.15 million shares. It shed 3 paisas to close at Rs20.59/share. Sui Southern Gas remained the third with a turnover of 9.15 million shares. It gained 47 paisas to finish at Rs10.57/share.