KARACHI: The overnight bearish sentiments proved short-lived as a surge in merchandise exports with a sharp contraction in trade deficit during December and a stable rupee fuelled selective buying propelling the benchmark KSE 100-share index above 65,000 level in the intra-day trade.

The benchmark index witnessed wild swings posting an intra-day high of 895 points to 65,244.60 and a dip of 130.06 points to 64,219.54.

However, towards the close of the trading session, a massive profit-taking was witnessed, which compelled the index to shed earlier gains, said Topline Securities Ltd.

E&P, fertiliser, tobacco and cement sectors contributed the most as Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd, Fauji Fertiliser Company, Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd and Kohat Cement Company Ltd added 267 points.

On the flip side, Millat Tractors Ltd, Meezan Bank Ltd and Pakistan State Oil cumulatively lost 74 points due to profit-taking in them.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Corporation said the bullish activity was witnessed amid upbeat economic data on exports surging 22.2pc year-on-year to $2.81bn, trade deficit shrinking by 40pc year-on-year to $1.7bn and cement despatches rose by 4.6pc year-on-year in December 2023.

He added that investor speculations ahead of major earning announcements due next week, rupee stability and the release of the IMF tranche this month played a catalyst role in bullish close at PSX.

The KSE-100 index closed at 64,646.84 points after gaining 297.24 or 0.46 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume, however, decreased 4.77pc to 639.6 million shares. The traded value dipped 17.05pc to Rs20.28bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (127.79m shares), Pakistan Teleco­mm­unication Company Ltd (50.43m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (35.83m shares), Bank of Punjab (29.65m shares) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (24.92m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Tobacco Ltd (Rs57.89), Hoechst Pakistan Ltd (R30), Faisal Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs25.50), Service Industries Ltd (Rs24.92) and Indus Motor Company Ltd (Rs23.26).

Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs27.34), Colgate-Palmolive (Pakistan) Ltd (Rs17.49) Siemens (Pakistan) Engineering (Rs16.58), Baluchistan Wheels Ltd (Rs14.64) and Hafiz Ltd (Rs13.58).

Foreign investors, however, remained net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $1.95m.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2024