KARACHI: After a few sluggish performances, the stock market staged a spectacular rally on Friday on economic optimism, driving the benchmark KSE 100 index close to the 76,000 level as investors remained busy in value-hunting.
Speaking to Dawn, Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation credited the pre-budget rally to widespread buying triggered by reports of a significant increase in the PSDP size to Rs1.22 trillion, a GDP growth target of 3.6pc for 2024-25, and the expectation of resolving over $2 billion dues owed to Chinese IPPs during the prime minister’s upcoming visit to Beijing.
Mr Ahsan added that the PSX attracted $140m in foreign portfolio investment in the last year, and a favourable foreign policy during the IMF programme had improved investor confidence despite economic challenges.
He said expectations of a massive cut in the SBP policy rate as the government projects CPI-based inflation in the range of 13-14.5pc for May and pre-budget speculations on capital market proposals also fuelled bullish momentum on the stock market.Topline Securities Ltd said the major positive contribution to the index came from Systems Ltd, Hub Power, Meezan Bank Ltd, Engro Corporation, Fauji Fertiliser Company and MCB Bank as they added 548 points to the index.
As a result, the benchmark index hit an intraday high of 75,953.74 and a low of 74,989.26. However, the KSE 100 index settled at 75,878.48 points after adding 1,000.35 points or 1.34pc on a day-on-day basis.
However, the overall trading volume rose 27.45pc to 523.29 million shares. The traded value surged 37.87pc to Rs20.57bn day-on-day.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (62.22m shares), Dewan Cement (31.64m shares), WorldCall Telecom (28.53m shares), Dewan Motors (25.20m shares) and Symmetry Group (23.87m shares).
The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Sazgar Engineering (Rs58.23), Hoechst Pakistan (Rs32.65), Rafhan Maize (Rs31.75), Systems Ltd (Rs30.86) and Mari Petroleum (Rs21.27).
The companies registering the major decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were PIA Holding Company (Rs67.20), Shahmurad Sugar (Rs35.37),
Hallmark Company (Rs27.01), ZIL Ltd (Rs16.87) and Bhanero Textile (Rs14.42).
Foreign investors continued to be net buyers as they bought shares worth $0.69m.
Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2024
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