KARACHI – Friday saw the Karachi Stocks Exchange (KSE) hitting the 30-month high of 12,389.04 points due to what analysts believe an ease in political uncertainty after the incumbent government responded positively to the popular demand for withdrawing the recent oil price hike.
On the last day of the week, the KSE-100 benchmark witnessed an upsurge of 72.95 points or 0.61 percent as compared to Thursdays’ 12,323.47 points with the intra-day high and low standing, respectively at 12,429.39 and 12,275.80 points. “Positive activity was witnessed as political uncertainty eased after the government reversed the fuel price hike as a popular move,” viewed Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Investments Limited. Total turnover of traded shares at the ready counter also registered a significant increase of over 7.468 million shares to close at 151.762 million in comparison to the Thursday’s 144.294 million.
Mehanti, a director at Arif Habib Investments, believes that the expectation on early approval of the long-awaited leverage products kept the investors’ sentiment positive on Friday despite the concerns for rising fiscal deficit and the sentiments of International Monetary Fund about Pakistan’s energy subsidies. The market capitalization on Friday also ended at a positive Rs 3.352 trillion against the previous Rs 3.336 trillion, registering a growth of Rs 16 billion.
The 7.35 million shares turnover at the futures market, however, remained downward against 7.83 million a day earlier. Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim remained the volume leader of the day with its share trading standing at 19.24 million gaining Rs 1.23 per share. Dilating on other factors responsible for a bullish activity at the Karachi bourse, Mehanti said the record $17.19 billion foreign exchange reserves, institutional and foreign interest in the blue chips like oil and gas, fertilizer scrips continued on expectation for record earning announcements.
