Stocks rally on govt plans to cut gas circular debt
KARACHI: Trading on the stock exchange remained upbeat on Monday, thanks to the investors’ expectations about the resolution of a rising circular debt in the gas sector.
Arif Habib Ltd said robust volumes were observed on the mainboard owing to healthy participation from investors in the exploration and production sector.
According to analyst Ahsan Mehanti, stocks showed a sharp recovery in the year-end rally on the constitution of a committee for the resolution of Rs1.5 trillion circular debt in the gas sector.
Reports about the PTI chief telling the Punjab chief minister to take a vote of confidence before January 11 also reduced political noise, he said.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,155.16 points, up 485.96 points or 1.23 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume increased 10.7pc to 146.9 million shares. The traded value went up 12.5pc to $22.9m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (11m shares), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (7.7m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (6.7m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (6.3m shares) and K-Electric Ltd (4.9m shares).
Sectors that contributed to the index performance were exploration and production (177.1 points), fertiliser (56.7 points), miscellaneous (50.6 points), cement (49.1 points) and oil marketing (39.5 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs364.87), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs99), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs80.01), Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs64.67) and Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs54.11).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs72.93), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs57), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs14.38), Ellcot Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs10.21) and Abbott Laboratories Pakistan Ltd (Rs6.89).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.69m.
Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2022