Pakistan stocks stage comeback; index gains 54 points

KARACHI: Pakistan stocks staged a comeback on Friday after the sell-off during the early hours of the day, amid declining market participation, dealers said.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks showed recovery, amid surging global equities and global crude oil prices and upbeat data on petroleum products sales during August.

“Surging local cement, steel and fertiliser prices, firm S&P ratings on debt with stable outlook, speculations on likely EU approval over GSP Plus exports status played a catalytic role in the positive close.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index gained 0.12 per cent, or 54.41 points, to close at 46,957.47 points. The KSE-30 shares index gained 0.24 per cent, or 45.09 points, to close at 18,851.16 points.

As many as 526 scrips were active, of which 201 advanced, 311 declined and 14 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 464.97 million shares, compared with the turnover of 536.64 million shares in the last trading session.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that optimistic investors kept the index in the green zone and the bourse closed with a gain of 54 points.

“Cement and banking sectors remained under pressure where Attock Cement, down 3.4 per cent; Maple Leaf Cement, down 1 per cent; Pioneer Cement, down 0.7 per cent); Habib Bank Limited, down 0.9 per cent; Faysal Bank Limited, 1.2 per cent, National Bank of Pakistan, down 1.5 per cent; and the United Bank Limited, down 0.3 per cent were the major losers for the day.”

The investors’ interest was witnessed in the chemical sector where Ghani Global went up 3.6 per cent, Lotte Chemical surges 1.2 per cent and Engro Polymer went up 1.1 per cent.

Going forward, analysts recommend investors to remain cautious and wait for clarity on the MSCI reclassification proposal, which is scheduled to be announced on September 7, 2021.

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Unilever Foods, up Rs372.63 to close at Rs22,096/share; and Allawasaya Textile, up Rs65.52 to close at Rs939.17/share.

The companies, which reflected the most losses included Wyeth Pakistan, down Rs30 to close at Rs1,700/share; and Indus Motor Company, down Rs23.62 to end at Rs1,295.01/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Service Fabric (Rights) with a turnover of 83.57 million shares. The scrip shed 98 paisas to close at Rs4.87/share; followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 50.6 million shares. It gained 5 paisas to close at Rs3.55/share. Telecard Limited remained the third with a turnover of 37.93 million shares. It gained Rs1.38 to finish at Rs21.92.