Pakistan equity market remains bullish; gains 398 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market started the week on a bullish momentum where optimism prevailed amid exports growing by an impressive 17.3 per cent in July. Moreover, inflation standing at 8.4 per cent also raised the market sentiment.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks showed recovery in the earnings season, amid late session buying on the reports of record $2.35 billion exports in July 2021.

“Mid-session pressure remained on falling global equities, slump in the rupee value and high inflation. However, higher global crude oil prices and speculations ahead of [the] major earnings announcements this week played a catalytic role in the positive close.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index gained 0.85 per cent, or 397.96 points, to close at 47,453.25 points. The KSE-30 shares index gained 0.79 per cent, or 148.18 points, to close at 18,985.23 points.

As many as 486 scrips were active, of which 352 advanced, 118 declined and 16 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 252.34 million shares, compared with the turnover of 399.09 million shares in the last trading session.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said disregarding the stringent Covid restrictions, the KSE-100 index performed well. Traded volumes remained thin in comparison with the daily traded volumes.

“[The] activity was tilted towards technology and textile sectors, which was mainly due to an increase in the rupee parity against USD, climbing 163 in the kerb market. Besides these sectors, investors took fresh positions in chemicals, oil and gas marketing and cement sector stocks after the successful closure of the rollover week on Friday. Financial results posted earlier in the session also helped reinforce and restore investors’ confidence.”

Going forward, analysts expect the market to remain range-bound; therefore, they recommend the investors to adopt selling on the strength strategy in the ongoing week.

The companies, which reflected the highest gains included Colgate Palmolive, up Rs43.54 to close at Rs2,854.26/share; and AKD Hospitality, up Rs29.56 to close at Rs423.7/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Bata Pakistan, down Rs80 to close at Rs1,550/share; and Gatron Industries, down Rs36.01 to end at Rs454/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 16.85 million shares. The scrip gained three paisas to close at Rs3.49/share; followed by the Hum Network with the turnover of 15.98 million shares. It gained 45 paisas to close at Rs7.17/share. Byco Petroleum was the third with the turnover of 13.73 million shares. It gained 31 paisas to finish at Rs10.08.

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