KSE-100 gains nearly 2% as investors cherry-pick holdings

Investors continued their buying run at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 Index jumped nearly 2% during trading on Thursday.

At close, the index settled at 62,052.23 level, an increase of 1,188.61 points or 1.95%.

Across-the-board buying was witnessed as index-heavy sectors including automobile assemblers, chemical, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas marketing companies, oil and gas exploration companies, power generation and property traded in the green.

On Wednesday, the Pakistani equities market had also staged a recovery as the benchmark index registered an increase of nearly 3% to settle at 60,863.62 level, an increase of 1,692.64 points or 2.86%.

Experts said value hunters are in action leading to across the board buying. Moreover, fresh liquidity is being injected as the market enters a new month, they said.

Globally, the Asian shares touched five-month highs on Thursday as market wagers on ever-more aggressive rate cuts extended a huge rally in US stocks and bonds, but also left plenty of scope for disappointment next year.

The S&P 500 has climbed 14% in just two months to within a whisker of its all-time closing peak, while its price to earnings ratio is up by a quarter on the year at 24.0.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan has also gained 10% in two months and added another 0.3% on Thursday to its highest since August.

Japan’s Nikkei was off 0.4% as a rebound in the yen has kept its gains for December to a minimum.

Chinese shares have generally missed out on the global cheer as foreign investors shun the country, worried about economy’s faltering recovery and tensions with the United States.

Blue chips were up 0.5% on Thursday, but are down 4% for December so far.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee maintained its upward trajectory against the US dollar for the 12th consecutive session as it appreciated 0.1% in the inter-bank market on Thursday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the local unit settled at 281.93 after an increase of Re0.27 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 676.2 million from 669.3 million a session before.

The value of shares rose to Rs20.2 billion from Rs16.1 billion in the previous session.

K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 62.8 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 46.1 million shares, and Fauji Foods Ltd at 43 million shares.

Shares of 382 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 283 registered an increase, 83 recorded a fall, while 16 remained unchanged.