KARACHI - Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Wednesday witnessed bullish activity on institutional interest in scrips across the board as benchmark KSE 100-index recovered over 1000 points.
Bulls ruled the local bourse yesterday, taking the KSE 100-index up by 1,031 points. The index closed at 42,310 points. Banking, cement and E&P sectors led the optimism, dealers said.
Increase in shares prices of heavy weight stocks including HBL (up 4.42%), OGDC (4.83%), UBL (2.90%), PSO (3.86%) and ENGRO (4.51%) brought bulls back to the PSX.
Foreigners have been net buyers for the past two sessions lapping up around $5.9m worth of Pakistan equities ahead of the FTSE rebalancing effective post Friday’s (15th Sept) closing, said analyst at Topline brokerage.
Top 10 index point contributors were HBL (up 4.5%), OGDC (5%), ENGRO (4.5%), UBL (3%), PPL (2.4%), PSO (3.9%), POL (3.9%), LUCK (2.5%), SNGP (3.5%) & MARI (5%); adding 557 points to the upside.
The rally was broad based; banks added 261points (HBL 114points), E&Ps contributed 204 points with OGDC hitting its upper limit; fertilizer added 157 points & OMCs 103 points, led by PSO, SNGP, & HASCOL (up 4.9%) dishing out a surprise right issue.
MLCF (up 0.86%) posted financial results for FY17, reporting an EPS of Rs9.06 and final DPS of Rs1.75. Also, HASCOL (up 4.92%) closed near its upper circuit on the back of news regarding issuance of 20% rights shares at Rs165/share.
PSMC (up 2.60%), MTL (1.15%) and AGTL (1.80%) gained on account of positive monthly sales numbers released by PAMA, stated analyst at JS Global.
Volumes also increased to 174 million shares, up 74% DoD, with ANL (-1.62%) being the volume leader that contributed 13% to the total volumes. While traded value increased to Rs9.6b/$92m.
Market participants believe positivity in the market has been pulled by attractive multiples, where rebalancing of FTSE is also likely bringing in activity. However, on the bank of lack of substantial market triggers, experts recommend investors to book profits at these high levels.
Scrips of total 388 active companies participated in the session of which 285 closed in advance, 82 in decline while 21 remained unchanged.
