KARACHI: Encouraging news from the United States about the expected conclusion of the stalled International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme lifted the benchmark index on Thursday by 322 points, or 0.7 per cent, to close at 45,821 points.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, a clear signal about the resumption of the IMF package by Finance Adviser Shaukat Tarin swayed the KSE-100 index to add a total of 665 points during the session. However, investors then resorted to profit-booking and trimmed the net gains.

The anticipation of an interest rate hike by the State Bank of Pakistan in the upcoming monetary policy helped banking stocks stage a rally while exploration and production stocks recorded gains on the prospects of the crude oil price touching $100 per barrel.

On the corporate result front, Kohat Cement announced its quarterly earnings of Rs1.4 billion, up 176pc from a year ago. The result was higher than analysts’ expectations, said Topline Securities.

Market participation incre­ased 9.77pc to 338.31 million shares on a day-on-day basis.

Sectors contributing to the benchmark index included banking (220.12 points), oil and gas exploration (96.68 points), fertiliser (79.58 points) cement (30.62 points) and chemical (28.51 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included Bank of Punjab (25.57m shares), TeleCard Ltd (24.33m shares), Hum Network (23.88m shares), WorldCall Telecom (21.82m shares) and Unity Foods (19.23m shares).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index included United Bank Ltd (79.26 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (61.25 points), Habib Bank Ltd (60.33 points), Bank Al Habib Ltd (33.44 points) and Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (30.42 points).

Shares that contributed negatively included TRG Pakistan Ltd (50.69 points), Pakistan Stock Exchange Ltd (16.84 points), Kot Addu Power Company Ltd (11.59 points), Avanceon Ltd (11.56 points) and International Industries Ltd (10.85 points).

JS Global advised investors to take advantage of any corrections in blue-chip stocks within banking, textile and oil and gas exploration and marketing sectors.

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $5.09m.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2021