Pakistan equity market remains bullish; Index gains 193.43 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks continued bullish trend on Thursday, amid appreciation in the rupee value against the dollar, dealers said.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks closed higher on the rupee recovery, amid Saudi inflows and the finance minister’s assurance over revival of the IMF programme.

“Midsession pressure remained on concerns over trading glitches, political protests and hike in [the] power tariff. However, Saudi package of $4.2 billion financing and deferred oil payment facility for economic support played a catalytic role in the bullish close.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index gained 0.42 per cent, or 193.49 points, to close at 45,985.41 points. The KSE-30 shares index gained 0.11 per cent, or 19.97 points, to close at 17,931.44 points.

As many as 351 scrips were active, of which 167 advanced, 166 declined and 18 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 229.5 million shares, compared with the turnover of 180.4 million shares in the last trading session.

An analyst at Topline Securities said the equities closed positive where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 45,990 level (up 0.43 per cent). “Market opened on a positive note, continuing its yesterday’s positive momentum, amid low volumes.”

Major positivity came from Lucky Cement, Colgate Palmolive, Fauji Cement, Pakistan State Oil and United Bank Limited, cumulatively adding 153 points to the index.

“On the corporate front, Lucky Cement announced its first quarter of FY22 EPS at Rs20.5, higher than the industry expectations, Further, Systems Limited announced its third quarter of FY21 EPS at Rs7.53, PSO announced its first quarter of FY22 EPS of Rs25.5, FCCL announced its first quarter of FY22 EPS at 98 paisas and Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) announced its third quarter of 2021 EPS of Rs12.1.”

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Colgate Palmolive, up Rs177.25 to close at Rs2,667.25/share; and Nestle Pakistan, up Rs160 to close at Rs5,880/share.

The companies, which reflected the most losses included Blessed Textile, down Rs37.4 to close at Rs461.34/share; and Al-Abbas Sugar, down Rs23.97 to close at Rs295.73/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Merit Packaging (Rights) with a turnover of 31.83 million shares. The scrip gained Re1 to close at Rs2.01/share; followed by Hum Network with a turnover of 22.25 million shares. It gained 22 paisas to close at Rs6.98/share. WorldCall Telecom remained the third with a turnover of 10.65 million shares. It shed four paisas to finish at Rs2.34.