KARACHI: The Pak­istan Stock Exchange (PSX) observed a third consecutive bullish session on Tuesday, with the representative index breaking the psychological barrier of 42,000 points in intraday trading.

Topline Securities said news reports about the likely tax relief on inter-corporate dividends, which are pay-outs that one company receives for holding shares in another company, in the upcoming budget kept the blue-chip firms in the limelight throughout the day.

However, investors opted for some profit-taking in the latter half of the trading session, which brought the KSE-100 index down from its intraday high last seen on May 17.

Arif Habib Ltd said investor activity remained strong as the whispers about a favourable budget for the capital markets supported share prices.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,923.46 points, up 255.52 points or 0.61 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 65.9pc to 240.8 million shares. The traded value went up 51.1pc to $24.9m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (24.4m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (20.5m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (15.5m shares), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (10.8m shares) and Pak Elektron Ltd (9.8m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were fertiliser (64.8 points), oil marketing (43.7 points), refinery (25.6 points), chemical (22.6 points) and cement (16.5 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs950), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs33.50), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs30.07), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs18.01) and Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd (Rs13.50).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs34.97), ZIL Ltd (Rs22), Dawood Lawrencepur Ltd (Rs13.03), Shahmurad Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs10.47) and Indus Motor Company Ltd (Rs9.30).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.41m.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2023