KARACHI: Bulls returned to the shares market on Friday as the Supreme Court’s order ended uncertainty over the status of the PTI government.

The impact was immediately visible across the bond, currency and equities markets. The rupee recovered 1.9 per cent value against the dollar in a day in what analysts termed the highest recovery in two years.

In addition, stocks in the banking sector rallied as investors expected better earnings following a hike of 250 basis points in the benchmark interest rate a day ago, according to Topline Securities.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 44,444.58 points, up 657.75 points or 1.5pc from a day ago.

The trading volume increased 61.6pc to 227.9 million shares while the traded value went up 36.2pc to $36.7m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included TeleCard Ltd (19.72m shares), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (17.71m shares), Treet Corporation Ltd (16.87m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (15.09m shares) and TPL Properties Ltd (14.22m shares).

Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included commercial banking (328.12 points), oil and gas exploration (80.51 points), cement (52.11 points), technology and communication (33.6 points) and fertiliser (30.51 points).

Shares contributing most positively to the index included Meezan Bank Ltd (78.12 points), United Bank Ltd (66.85 points), Habib Bank Ltd (45.45 points), MCB Bank Ltd (44.23 points) and Lucky Cement Ltd (41.94 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included The Hub Power Company Ltd (4.32 points), IGI Holdings Ltd (4.24 points), Mughal Iron and Steel Industries Ltd (1.91 points), Javedan Corporation Ltd (1.68 points) and Engro Fertilisers Ltd (1.63 points).

Shares that increased the most in percentage terms were Meezan Bank Ltd (6.13pc), Azgard Nine Ltd (5.58pc), The Bank of Punjab Ltd (5.15pc), National Refinery Ltd (5.11pc) and HBL Growth Fund (4.76pc).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $2.92m.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2022