KARACHI: Despite foreign selling, a bullish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday due to investor expectations of positive outcome of the IMF Executive Board meeting.

The market opened in green zone and stayed bullish throughout the day and closed on strong positive note with healthy gains.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 444.65 points or 0.97 percent and crossed 46,000 psychological level to close at 46,119.15 points. Trading activities also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 360.805 million shares as compared to 312.501 million shares traded on Tuesday while daily traded value increased to Rs 10.939 billion against previous day’s Rs 9.487 billion.

BRIndex100 increased by 59.48 points or 1.27 percent to close at 4,756.84 points with total daily turnover of 332.839 million shares.

BRIndex30 added 278.35 points or 1.51 percent to close at 18,713.38 points with total daily trading volumes of 246.490 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained on the selling side and withdrew $1.716 million from local equity market. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 54 billion to Rs 7.863 trillion. Out of total 381 active scrips, 269 closed in positive and only 91 in negative while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.

Hum Network was the volume leader with 48.787 million shares and gained Rs 0.45 to close at Rs 7.65 followed by Telecard Limited that inched up by Rs 0.77 to close at Rs 18.42 with 28.283 million shares. Treet Corp increased by Rs 1.37 to close at Rs 42.31 with 26.314 million shares.

Ismail Industries and Mari Petroleum were the top gainers increasing by Rs 32.79 and Rs 31.89 respectively to close at Rs 470.07 and Rs 1699.90 while Sapphire Textile and Sapphire Fiber were the top losers declining by Rs 81.22 and Rs 67.42, respectively to close at Rs 1001.78 and Rs 831.58.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that bullish momentum was witnessed due to uplifted optimism towards IMF announcement. The International Monetary Fund’s Executive Board will take the sixth review of the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan on the agenda in its meeting scheduled for Wednesday (Feb 2).

The market opened on a positive note and stayed in the green zone throughout the day. In banking sector, BAFL announced fourth quarter CY21 result in line with market expectations. Activity continued to remain side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (up 105.6 points), E&P (up 80.7 points), Cement (up 63.0 points), Textile Composite (up 35.1 points) and OMC’S (up 25.3 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index added 70.88 points or 0.83 percent to close at 8,602.46 points with total turnover of 1.517 million shares.

BR Cement Index increased by 89.81 points or 1.56 percent to close at 5,845.69 points with 23.744 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index gained 93.57 points or 0.91 percent to close at 10,339.83 points with 23.290 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 25.6 points or 0.42 percent to close at 6,155.35 points with 6.238 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index surged by 65.71 points or 1.67 percent to close at 4,008.32 points with 13.873 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,857.73 points, up 45.4 points or 1.19 percent with 126.380 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities continued its positive momentum as benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 46,119 level, up 0.97 percent.

The day kicked off on a positive note over IMF Executive Board which will take the 6th review due on February 02, 2022 where Pakistan expect $1.0 billion under Extended Fund Facility meanwhile Pakistan received $1.0 billion of Sukuk proceeds further garnered the investors interest.

Major contributors in the trading session were HBL, PPL and LUCK where they cumulatively added 106 points in KSE-100 Index.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022