KARACHI: With the revival of hopes for a cut in the interest rate following a sharp deceleration in inflation and significant progress on the government’s privatisation agenda, the stock market extended the overnight buying euphoria, tossing the KSE 100-share index to a new all-time high closing above 67,5000.

Muhammad Suhail, CEO of Topline Securities Ltd, said the investor confidence improved further after seeing good progress on privatisation of Pakistan Intern­ational Airlines Corpor­ation and foreign portfolio investment in government papers.

He said cement stocks were in the limelight amid expectations of a cut in the State Bank of Pakistan’s policy rate in the coming months. “Undoubtedly, the cement sector stole the spotlight, spearheading the market’s upward trajectory. Investors bought stocks like Maple Leaf Cement, Fauji Cement and DG Khan Cement, which managed to close on their respective upper caps, added Topline Securities.

The steel sector also attr­a­cted huge buying interest, with International Steel Ltd rising 6.70pc, Mughal Steel by 5.05pc, Amreli Steel 3.97pc and Interna­tional Industries Ltd 3.56pc.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks maintained a bullish outlook on speculations about the likely easing of interest rate from the current level of 22pc after the CPI Inflation slowed to 20.7pc in March, much blow the government’s expectation of 23.5pc.

Other positive triggers included a 4pc rise in oil sales and textile exports by 3pc year-on-year in March, contributing to a bull run at PSX.

The benchmark index hit an intraday record high of 67,873.22, gaining 986.95 points. However, it closed at 67,756.04 points after adding 869.77 points, or 1.30 per cent, from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume surged 50.97pc to 361.82 million shares. The traded value was also up 33.11pc to Rs11.90bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pakistan Inte­r­n­ational Airlines Cor­poration Ltd (38.23m sha­r­es), Flying Cement Ltd (21.45m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (20.97m sha­res), Power Cement Ltd (16.97m shares) and Cner­gyico PK (12.70m shares).

The shares registering the most significant incre­ases in their share prices in absolute terms were Hall­mark Company Ltd (Rs43.21), Lucky Cement (Rs36.47), Rafhan Maize Pro­d­ucts Company Ltd (Rs30.00), Indus Motor Company Ltd (Rs21.37) and Engro Corp (Rs17.46)

The companies registering the major decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Hoechst Pakistan Ltd (Rs49.50), Sha­h­murad Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs28.54), Ibrahim Fibres Ltd (Rs27.74), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs15.38), Pakistan Hotels Developers Ltd (Rs10.95).

Foreign investors turned net buyers as they bought shares worth $2.31m.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2024