After a two-session fall, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) staged a turnaround on Tuesday with the KSE-100 Index gaining 0.29% as completion of International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions for receipt of the next loan tranche revived investor sentiment.
However, the IMF in its statement added that the board meeting is tentatively planned for late August once adequate financing assurances are confirmed.
The KSE-100 fell earlier in the day after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced its verdict on the prohibited funding case against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
A three-member bench led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja announced the judgment. In its verdict, the ECP said that PTI did indeed receive prohibited funding and kept 13 bank accounts hidden.
However, the KSE-100 index gained in the latter part of the day after it was reported that Pakistan had fulfilled all prior conditions for IMF's loan disbursement. At close on Tuesday, the KSE-100 ended with a gain of 115.65 points or 0.29% to close at 40,191.61.
Mixed session observed at PSX, KSE-100 falls 0.19%
Trading began with a dip as market weighed sentiment on ECP’s verdict, however, IMF's remarks bolstered the KSE-100 and erased the losses.
Automobile, cement, chemical and fertiliser sectors saw heavy buying activity.
A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that PSX observed a positive session as Pakistani rupee continued to show resistance against the US dollar as further appreciation was witnessed.
A report from Topline Securities stated that Pakistan equities closed on a slight positive note where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 40,192 level (up 0.29%).
“Market opened on a negative note over ECP verdict on PTI funding which led the market to make an intraday low of 313 points, however, market recovered from its intra-day low after verdict and made an intra-day high of 382 points,” it said.
Investor interest was mostly witnessed in fertiliser's sector space as the Ministry of Industries has called a meeting of manufacturing companies tomorrow to decide on an unified price of feed gas to streamline fertiliser production, it said.
On the economic front, the Pakistani rupee recovered Rs0.46 (or 0.19%) against the US dollar on a day-on-day basis to close at Rs238.38, according to data from the State Bank of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, sectors that helped the benchmark KSE-100 index move up included fertiliser (72 points), chemical (45.71 points) and cement (37.03 points).
Volume on the all-share index nearly doubled to 217.5 million from 110.42 million on Monday. Similarly, the value of shares traded also soared to Rs6.33 billion from Rs3.72 billion recorded in the previous session.
TPL Properties was the volume leader with 35.09 million shares, followed by Agritech Limited with 22.63 million shares, and Pak Refinery with 13.2 million shares.
Shares of 327 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 191 registered an increase, 105 recorded a fall, and 31 remained unchanged.