KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bullish for the second straight day amid hopes for the revival of stalled International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 331.59 points (+0.80 percent) to close at 41,671.65 points on Tuesday.
The IMF remains in touch with Pakistan’s authorities in order to pave the way for a board meeting before the financing programme expires at the end of June, the IMF mission chief for Pakistan said. “This engagement will focus on the restoration of foreign exchange proper market functioning, the passage of a FY24 budget consistent with programme goals, and adequate financing,” Nathan Porter added.
Moreover, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s comments about a business-friendly budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 and investors’ expectations of bonus shares’ announcement by big companies in the upcoming financial results kept the momentum high at the bourse.
The market opened on a sharp positive note and remained in the green throughout the session. The benchmark index has gained over 700 points during the last two sessions, as it gained over 375 points in the previous session.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 331.4 points, showing an intraday high of 41,693.46 points and a low of 41,362.06 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 257.83 points (+0.92 percent) to close at 27,907.95 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 252.24 points (+1.24 percent) to close at 20,289.93 points.
The overall market volumes decreased by 148.67 million to 197.68 million shares against 346.35 million shares a session earlier. The reason behind drop in volumes was that 193.9 million shares of a small-cap stock WTL were traded a session earlier. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index remained 104.07 million against 95.41 million a session earlier, showing an increase of 8.66 million shares.
Among scrips, WTL topped the volumes with 31.06 million shares, followed by AIRLINK (21.32 million) and TPLP (10.77 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included WTL, AIRLINK, TPLP, BAFL and GRR, which formed around 41 percent of total volumes.
A total of 340 companies traded shares in the stock exchange as compared to 342 a session earlier. Out of traded companies, shares of 211 closed up, shares of 105 closed down while shares of 24 companies remained unchanged. A total of 95 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 97 a session earlier, out of which shares of 63 companies closed up, 28 closed down and four remained unchanged.
The number of total trades decreased by 6,405 to 88,319 against 94,724 a session earlier, while the value traded increased by Rs0.07 billion to Rs6.46 billion.
In terms of rupee, NESTLE remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs330 (+5.03 percent) per share, closing at Rs6,890. The runner-up remained RMLP, the share price of which climbed up by Rs130 (+1.58 percent) to Rs8,322. PRET remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs29.34 (-5.34 percent) per share, closing at Rs520, followed by SRVI, the share price of which fell by Rs5.6 (-2.12 percent) to close at Rs256.85 per share. – TLTP