The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned bullish on Wednesday amid expectations of a positive outcome of talks between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for resumption of $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 870.01 points (+1.95 percent) to close at 45,499.46 points.
The market opened on a bullish trend that continued throughout the session. The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 934.2 points, showing an intraday high of 45,563.6 points and a low of 44,629.4 points (last day closing point). Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 429.78 points (+1.40 percent) to close at 31,103.89 points, while All Share Islamic Index gained 302.52 points (+1.38 percent) to close at 22,149.56 points.
A total of 376 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 279 closed up, shares of 87 closed down while shares of 10 companies remained unchanged. Out of 95 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 82 closed up and 13 closed down.
The overall market volumes increased by 59.89 million to 308.19 million shares. Total volume traded for the KSE-100 Index was 132.67 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 9,205 to 117,421, while the value traded increased by Rs1.54 billion to Rs10.36 billion. The market capitalisation increased by Rs92.92 billion.
Among scrips, WTL led the volumes with 49.45 million shares, followed by HUMNL (24.77 million) and BYCO (15.61 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, HUMNL, BYCO, TELE and UNITY, which formed around 39 percent of total volumes.
The sectors propping up the index were commercial banks with 201 points, cement with 160 points, technology & communication with 106 points, fertilizer with 79 points and textile composite with 49 points. The most points added to the index were by TRG which contributed 65 points followed by LUCK with 58 points, ENGRO with 50 points, HUBC with 49 points and HBL with 44 points.
The sectors bringing the index down were close–end mutual funds with 6 points, glass & ceramics with 5 points and textile spinning with one point. The most points taken off the index were by OGDC which stripped the index of 8 points followed by NESTLE with 7 points, HGFA with 6 points, GHGL with 5 points and KAPCO with 3 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that as the news of resumptions of dialogue with the IMF team relayed, investors’ concerns over the package started dissipating, causing the index to make an upward swing. They said that cement, technology, banks, and fertilizer stocks remained in the limelight. Cement stocks led the index on news that cement companies are increasing the cement bag prices, whereas dwindling outflows from foreign counters in banks and fertilizer stocks also helped these sectors post healthy gains.
Other analysts said that the bulls staged a comeback due to the optimistic sentiments in the market on the back of 24.4 percent improvement in the current account deficit on a month-on-month basis that clocked in at $1.11 billion in the month of September 2021. With positive outcome expected from the negotiation underway with the IMF, the capital market remained upbeat, they added.
