NIDA JAFFERY
Amidst Supreme Court’s announcement to form single-member commission for Panama investigations, the Benchmark KSE-100-Share Index continued its rally from the last two days and crossed 42,000 mark for the first time. The bourse staged an all time intraday high of 42,107.99 points.
Testing new highs every day after PTI Chief Imran Khan called off the protest in Islamabad on Tuesday, the stock market delved deeper into greens by the end of the session on Thursday. Investors’ sentiment grew stronger after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif submitted his response in court and denied holding any offshore companies. The PM maintained that he was a regular taxpayer of the country.
The equity market closed at 41,974 points, up 231.71 points or 0.56% on Thursday. Banks extended gains from the previous session with Muslim Commercial Bank (+1.13%), Habib Bank Limited (+3.58%), United Bank Limited (+1.87%), Allied Bank Limited (+2.34%) and Bank Alfalah Limited (+1.37%) trading deep into green. Steel shined again with Mughal Steel (+5%), Amreli Steel Limited (+5%), and International Steel Limited (+5%) topping the investors’ charts for a 3rd consecutive day amid news flow of increase in prices of cold rolled coil and galvanized products by Rs3,000/ton.
Cements retreated amid profit taking with DG Khan Cement (‐1.10%), Lucky Cement (‐0.59%) and Maple Leaf Cement (‐1.71%) trading in red.
Dewan Cement Limited (‐4.57%) closed on its lower circuit limit as market negotiations with Chinese investors for divestment of a substantial stake failed to materialize.
Exploration and Production sector declined in line with overnight retreat in crude oil price. However, Oil and Gas Development Company (+0.02%) stood out as an exception amid announcements of recent discoveries in Mithri, Khairpur, Khamiso districts in southern Sindh. Others like Pakistan Oilfields Limited (‐1.14%) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (‐0.01%) traded in red despite an overall improving market sentiment.
“A retreat in the next few sessions cannot be ruled out,” said a report by Insight Securities. Analysts expect the market to resist northbound moves in the days to come.
Market participation remained high for KSE‐100 Index and clocked in at 243 million shares vs 231 million shares yesterday. The daily traded value for the declined to $139.7 million compared to $149.3 million shares in the previous session.
The share price of 179 stocks went up, that of 201 depreciated and that of 21 stocks remained unchanged.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s market capitalization stood at Rs8.4 trillion ($80.9 billion) at the end of the day.