Market gains 316 points on rupee’s appreciation

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned around on Wednesday following rupee’s appreciation, with the KSE-100 Index gaining 316.09 points (+0.69 percent) to close at 45,807.57 points.
The market opened on a positive note but remained range-bound and lacklustre. The market remained calm and indices switched in both green and red territories during the more than first four hours’ trading. However, following rupee’s appreciation in the open market, the equity market turned bullish and remarkable buying was witnessed in the last 100 minutes’ trading.
The Pakistani rupee extended gains against the US dollar in the open market for the second straight session on Wednesday and appreciated by Rs13 (+3.99 percent). The rupee was quoted in the range of 310-313 against the dollar as compared to 320-326 a session earlier. The local unit appreciated against the greenback in the open market by Rs8 (+2.40 percent) on Tuesday last. Overall, the rupee has appreciated by Rs21 in two sessions.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 393.9 points, showing an intraday high of 45,854.18 points and an intraday low of 45,460.28 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 156.46 points (+0.51 percent) to close at 30,470.02 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 157.45 points (+0.71 percent) to close at 22,029.06 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 19.21 million shares to 74.24 million shares against 55.03 million shares traded a session earlier. The overall market volumes increased by 16.47 million shares to 139.71 million shares against 123.24 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, KAPCO topped the volumes with 14.23 million shares, followed by MLCF (12.9 million) and WTL (10.6 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KAPCO, MLCF, WTL, DFML, and ASC,which formed around 36 percent of total volumes.
A total of 304 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 296 a session earlier, out of which shares of 181 closed up, shares of 99 closed down while shares of 24 companies remained unchanged. A total of 92 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 89 a session earlier, out of which share price of 61 companies closed up, 24 closed down and seven remained unchanged.
The number of total trades increased by 2,846 to 80,691 as compared to 77,845 trades recorded in the previous session, while the value traded increased by Rs1.12 billion to Rs4.81 billion as compared to Rs3.69 billion in the previous session.
In terms of rupee, THALL remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs15.31 (+7.29 percent) per share, closing at Rs225.32. The runner-up remained MEHT, the share price of which climbed up by Rs12.53 (+2.31 percent) to Rs555. PAKT remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs24.8 (-3.57 percent) per share, closing at Rs670, followed by PMPK, the share price of which fell by Rs20 (-5.58 percent) to close at Rs320 per share.
The major sector taking the index towards north remained commercial banks (80 points), oil & gas exploration companies (59 points), power generation & distribution (46 points), technology & communication (29 points), and cement (27 points). The major companies adding points to the index remained UBL (36 points), PPL (24 points), KAPCO (23 points), OGDC (22 points), and DAWH (20 points).
The sectors taking the index towards south were tobacco (9 points), insurance (7 points), property (2 points), and close-end mutual funds and pharmaceuticals (1 point each). The major companies depriving the index of points remained PAKT and EFERT (9 points each), NML (8 points), LUCK (6 points), and LCI (5 points). – TLTP