PSX regains 42,000 level with a rally of 62 points

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) managed to close in green on Wednesday after going down in previous two sessions, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 62.34 points (+0.15 percent) to close at 42,012.66 points.
The market opened on a negative note and indices remained in the red territory for the entire session except for the last hour trading when value hunting brought back the index from deep troubles to close above the 42,000 level.
Political turmoil due to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s long march, the uncertainty looming over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan revival programme amid the government’s hesitation to lift up the subsidies on petroleum products, and continuous depreciation of Pakistan rupee against the US dollar kept the market under pressure.
However, Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed al-Jadaan told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is finalising the extension of the kingdom’s $3 billion deposit to Pakistan. This factor provided support to the bourse.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 772.39 points, showing an intraday high of 42,128.41 and a low of 41,356.02 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 40.83 points (+0.14 percent) to close at 28,756.73 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 13.35 points (+0.07 percent) to close at 20,530.09 points.
A total of 339 companies traded shares in the stock exchange compared to 334 a session earlier. Out of traded companies, shares of 206 closed up, shares of 109 closed down while shares of 24 companies remained unchanged. A total of 92 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index, out of which 59 closed up, 31 closed down and two remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes increased by 70.34 million to 240.05 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 44.52 million to 120.55 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 11,656 to 102,688, while the value traded increased by Rs2.13 billion to Rs7.57 billion. Overall market capitalisation increased by Rs9.94 billion.
Among scrips, PRL topped the volumes with 21.24 million shares, followed by KEL (15.14 million) and WTL (13.44 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included PRL, KEL, WTL, CNERGY and GGL, which formed over 30 percent of total volumes.
In terms of rupee, COLG remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs47.99 (+2.23 percent) per share, closing at Rs2,199.99. The runner-up remained MARI, the share price of which climbed up by Rs26.41 (+1.66 percent) to Rs1,612.99. RMPL remained the top loser in terms of rupee for the second straight day and witnessed a decrease of Rs200 (-2.04 percent) per share, closing at Rs9,600, followed by SFL, the share price of which fell by Rs81.78 (-7.48 percent) to close at Rs1,011.01 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards north were technology & communication (43 points), cement (24 points), food & personal care products (19 points), chemical (18 points), and refinery (17 points). The most points added to the index were by TRG (21 points), MARI (18 points), POL (15 points), UNITY (12 points), and SYS (11 points).
The sectors taking the index towards south were fertilizer (67 points), oil & gas exploration companies (15 points), commercial banks (7 points), textile composite (4 points), and oil & gas marketing companies (2 points). The most points taken off the index were by EFERT (49 points), FFC and OGDC (29 points each), PPL (19 points) and MCB (12 points). – TLTP