Bourse closes higher over renewed optimism

• The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 395.45 points.
• The market reached an intraday high of 41,028 and a low of 40,349.
• Analysts suggest investors adopt the “Sell on Strength” strategy in the upcoming sessions.

KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market closed on a positive note on Monday as renewed optimism prevailed among the investors regarding likely government measures to stabilise the economy, analysts said.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the bourse started the first trading day of 2023 with a bullish momentum due to the expectation that critical decisions addressing Pakistan’s economic and security problems will be made at the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting.

“The market reached an intraday high of 41,028 and a low of 40,349 to close at a 40,816 level as profit-taking ensued during the second half of the trading day on the back of surging global crude oil prices and an expectation of an early resolution to the gas circular debt crisis,” he added.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 395.45 points, or 0.98 per cent, to close at 40,815.90 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 189.91 points, or 1.28 per cent, to close at 15,026.32 points.

Going forward, the analysts expect the upward potential of the KSE-100 index to be limited because of uncertainty surrounding the prospects of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) ninth review. Therefore, suggest investors adopt the “Sell on Strength” strategy in the upcoming sessions.

As many as 334 scrips were active of which 211 advanced, 107 declined and 16 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 242.17 million shares, compared with the turnover of 284.51 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Sanofi-Aventis up Rs42 to close at Rs1,000/share, and Mari Petroleum up Rs20.12 to close at Rs1,567.08/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses included Unilever Foods down Rs1,000 to close at Rs24,000/share, and Bata (Pak) down Rs157.29 to close at Rs2,006/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Pak Petroleum with a turnover of 14.56 million shares. The scrip gained Rs3.23 to close at Rs71.73/share, followed by Pak Refinery with a turnover of 12.73 million shares. It gained 59 paisas to close at Rs13.56/share. Hascol Petrol remained the third with a turnover of 12.22 million shares. It gained Re1 to close at Rs6.61/share.

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