KARACHI: Bulls were in control of the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday after the Asian Development Bank stated that it’d give the country aid to the tune of $2.3 billion.

Arif Habib Ltd said the cement sector remained in the limelight owing to a decline in international coal prices. The benchmark index traded in the green throughout the day as investors stayed bullish in view of the fall in government bond yields.

JS Global said cement, steel and technology sectors should be on the radar of investors for any buying opportunity.

Investors also celebrated the continued improvement in the currency market as the rupee appreciated 0.9 per cent to 221.94 against the dollar.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,160.57 points, up 549.15 points or 1.32pc from the preceding session.

The trading volume decreased 30.4pc to 442.6 million shares while the traded value went up 31.5pc to $61.8m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (116.86m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (29.82m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (23.6m shares), Flying Cement Ltd (16.72m shares) and K-Electric Ltd (14.35m shares).

Sectors that contributed to the index performance were technology (204.2 points), fertiliser (109.9 points), exploration and production (84.3 points), banking (77.8 points) and power (42.5 points).

Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs50), Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs32.05), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs31.23), Systems Pakistan Ltd (Rs28.81) and JDW Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs19.50).

Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs86), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs76.81), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs25.25), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs25) and Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs14.30).

Foreign investors remained net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.3m.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2022