KARACHI: Aggressive value-hunting amid expectations of a reduction in the SBP policy rate next month, pushed the benchmark KSE index again above 75,000 on Thursday.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said a slight cut in yields by up to 5bps on different tenors of Pakistan Investment Bonds in the last auction strengthened market hopes for a decrease in the key interest rate as inflation is expected to decelerate to 13-15pc in May.

He said speculations in the pre-budget session ahead of the government’s prior actions on energy, tax, and trade tariffs for reaching a Staff-Level Agreement for a new IMF bailout and deliberation on privatisation of state-owned enterprises also contributed to the bullish close.

Topline Securities Ltd said the fertiliser, power, and E&P sectors contributed positively to the index, with OGDCL, K-Electric, Fauji Fertiliser, and Hub Power adding 175 points. Conversely, Engro Corporation, MCB Bank, and United Bank Ltd came under selling pressure and lost 110 points.

As a result, the benchmark index hit an intraday high of 75,284.74 and a low of 74,726.07. However, the KSE 100 index settled at 75,114.45 points after adding 157.80 points or 0.21pc on a day-on-day basis.

However, the overall trading volume rose 29.84pc to 584.48 million shares, but the traded value dipped 5.68pc to Rs16.70bn day-on-day.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Ele­ctric (191.62m shares), WorldCall Telecom (94.­78m shares), Symm­etry Group (47.71m sha­res), Pace Pakistan Ltd (30.­41m shares) and Pakistan International Airlines (25.49m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs84.44), Pak Tobacco (Rs38.10), Murree Bre­wery (Rs30.74), Reliance Cotton (Rs26.35) and Khyber Textile (Rs16.02).

The companies registering the major decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs38­.18), Hallmark Company Ltd (Rs28.33), Bhanero Textile (Rs18.20), Gatron Industries (Rs17.56) and Ibrahim Fibres (Rs17.19).

Foreign investors tur­n­ed net buyers as they pic­ked shares worth $0.99m.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2024