KARACHI: Positive sentiments took hold of the trading floor at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday as the benchmark index traded in the green zone throughout the session.

Arif Habib Ltd said investors opted for value hunting across the board with a rally in the IT sector. IT exports surged to $2.6 billion in 2021-22. Investors’ participation remained healthy as hefty volumes were witnessed in main-board as well as third-tier stocks.

Investors welcomed the statement by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on the expected sale of minority stakes in state-owned enterprises to a friendly country under a repo arrangement — a move that’s going to help bridge Pakistan’s financing gap of $4bn.

Investors remained upb­eat partly as they anticipated a lower current account deficit for the outgoing month, said JS Global.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,276.64 points, up 304 points or 0.76pc from a day ago.

The trading volume incre­ased 106.7pc to 251.3 million shares while the traded value went up 125.3pc to $39m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (32.61m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (20.37m shares), Lotte Chemical Pak­i­s­tan Ltd (16.95m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (10.77m shares) and Cnergyico PK Ltd (10.22m shares).

Sectors contributing to the index performance included banking (154.1 points), technology (93.3 points), exploration and production (64.9 points), power (24.7 points) and oil marketing (18.5 points).

Stocks that contributed most positively to the index were TRG Pakistan Ltd (54.41 points), MCB Bank Ltd (40.1 points), Habib Bank Ltd (37.22 points), Bank AL Habib Ltd (36.29 points) and Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (34.91 points).

Shares that took away the highest number of points from the index were Engro Fertilisers Ltd (55.37 points), Indus Motor Company Ltd (25.91 points), Engro Poly­mer and Chemicals Ltd (20.96 points), Engro Corpor­ation Ltd (15.04 points) and Millat Tractors Ltd (4.79 points).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.32m.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2022

Follow Dawn Business on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and across the world.

Opinion

Editorial

Short-changed?
Updated 24 Nov, 2024

Short-changed?

As nations continue to argue, the international community must recognise that climate finance is not merely about numbers.
Overblown ‘threat’
24 Nov, 2024

Overblown ‘threat’

ON the eve of the PTI’s ‘do or die’ protest in the federal capital, there seemed to be little evidence of the...
Exclusive politics
24 Nov, 2024

Exclusive politics

THERE has been a gradual erasure of the voices of most marginalised groups from Pakistan’s mainstream political...
Counterterrorism plan
Updated 23 Nov, 2024

Counterterrorism plan

Lacunae in our counterterrorism efforts need to be plugged quickly.
Bullish stock market
23 Nov, 2024

Bullish stock market

NORMALLY, stock markets rise gradually. In recent months, however, Pakistan’s stock market has soared to one ...
Political misstep
Updated 23 Nov, 2024

Political misstep

To drag a critical ally like Saudi Arabia into unfounded conspiracies is detrimental to Pakistan’s foreign policy.