Market watch
Benchmark index advances 0.22% to settle at 44,587.85
TLTP
KARACHI
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile session for a second consecutive day on Wednesday due to rising number of Covid-19 cases in the country and the benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 96.82 (+0.22 percent) to close at 44,587.85 points.
The KSE-100 Index traded in a range of 655.5 points, showing an intraday high of 45,133.2 and a low of 44,477.9. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 105.82 points (+0.35 points) to close at 30,498.19 points, while All Share Islamic Index gained 62.29 points (+0.29 percent) to close at 21,881.70 points.
A total of 403 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 244 closed up, shares of 150 closed down while shares of 9 companies remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes increased by 144.79 million to 443.9 million shares, while market capitalisation increased by Rs26.79 billion. The number of total trades increased by 28,561 to 170,333, while value traded increased by Rs5.16 billion to Rs25.92 billion.
Among scrips, BYCO topped the volumes with 73.2 million shares, followed by TRG (39 million) and PRL (31.1 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BYCO, TRG, PRL, UNITY and GGL, which formed 42 percent of total volumes.
The sectors propping up the index were fertilizer with 24 points, cement with 24 points, oil & gas exploration companies with 22 points, commercial banks with 19 points and leather & tanneries with 17 points. The most points added to the index was by ENGRO which contributed 31 points followed by UBL with 28 points, POL with 20 points, SYS with 20 points and SRVI with 17 points.
Sector wise, the index was let down by technology & communication with 35 points, textile composite with 17 points, power generation & distribution with 16 points, chemical with 16 points and refinery with 5 points. The most points taken off the index was by TRG which stripped the index of 52 points followed by HBL with 30 points, COLG with 20 points, HUBC with 11 points and FFC with 10 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that Pakistan’s launch of Eurobond and raising funds from the international market was warmly greeted by PSX, which saw an upside of 642 points during the session and ended 97 points. The E&P, cement, O&GMCs and steel sectors performed well whereas refinery and tech proved to be very volatile, where stocks hit lower circuit after trading at high rates during the session.
A hint towards opening up trade with India also boosted investors’ confidence, where among listed sectors, cement is anticipated to be a key beneficiary from export of cement.
The closing note by Aba Ali Habib highlighted that the market opened positive after the government announced it successfully sold USD 2.5bn worth of Eurobonds to foreign investors. Furthermore, SBP’s announcement of the receipt of USD 499 million under IMF’s Extended Fund Facility also added investors’ positive sentiments. However, it failed to extend gains in late hours as investors’ sentiments were impacted by an uptick in coronavirus cases that shattered investors’ confidence, said the analysts.
