Bulls rule PSX; index crosses 48,000 psychological barrier

KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market started the first day of the week with an extensive bull run where the index broke the 48,000 psychological barrier, as lower current account deficit and certainty over the Afghan issue triggered buying, dealers said on Monday.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said the stocks closed bullish, amid bull-run in the global equities and surge in the global crude oil prices.

“Upbeat data on the current account deficit normalising to $773 million for July 2021, easing concerns over border and trade tensions with Afghanistan, the finance minister’s assurance on capital market reforms and speculations on the likely unconditional release of $2.8 billion IMF [International Monetary Fund] support tranche today played a catalytic role in the bullish close.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index gained 1.08 per cent, or 512.39 points, to close at 48,112.21 points. The KSE-30 shares index gained 1.23 per cent, or 234.41 points, to close at 19,337.45 points.

As many as 494 scrips were active, of which 331 advanced, 144 declined and 19 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 397.69 million shares, compared with the turnover of 299.13 million shares in the last trading session.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the market traded in the positive zone throughout the session, adding a total of 545 points during the session and closing near the session’s high with a net 512 points.

“[The] E&P sector, which was a laggard in the past year or so and particularly in the past month or so, performed well on the back of a 3 per cent increase in [the] international crude oil prices today. Besides, oil and gas marketing companies saw Pakistan State Oil (PSO) sprinting due to its financial results, which were scheduled to be announced, but could not by session’s end. Besides, technology stocks ramped up taking cue from Series B fundraising of Airlift that helped improve valuation multiples of listed entities in tech space.”

The companies, which reflected the highest gains included Rafhan Maize, up Rs300 to close at Rs10,0009/share; and Unilever Foods, up Rs260.01 to close at Rs17,560/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Bata Pakistan, down Rs88.41 to close at Rs1,660/share; and Colgate Palmolive, down Rs64.75 to end at Rs2,715.25/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Hum Network with a turnover of 35.38 million shares. The scrip gained 48 paisas to close at Rs7.68/share; followed by the Bank of Punjab with a turnover of 22.27 million shares. It gained 38 paisas to close at Rs8.71/share. Ghani Global remained the third with a turnover of 19.88 million shares. It gained 71 paisas to finish at Rs47.64.