KARACHI: Shrugging off the rising political noise following the landmark apex court ruling on reserve seats, equity investors on Monday celebrated the reaching of a Staff-Level Agreement (SLA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $7 billion credit line, tossing the benchmark KSE 100 index to an all-time high above 81,000.

Also, an expected softening of monetary policy aided market optimism about the economic outlook, which attracted buying interest, especially from foreign investors.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stoc­ks closed at an all-time high as the signing of the SLA boosted investor confidence.

He added that the expec­ted ease in the SBP policy rate, settlement of the energy sector circular debt crisis, the surge in remittances, and rupee stability played a catalyst role in the record close at the PSX.

Topline Securities Ltd said securing a new Exten­ded Fund Facility for 37 months bolstered investor sentiments.

Systems Ltd, MCB Bank, Fauji Fertiliser, Pakistan Oilfield, Hub Power and Engro Corporation contributed significantly, adding 599 points to the index.

As a result, the benchmark index hit an intraday record high of 81,428.43 points and a low of 80,743.46. However, the index settled at 79,992.35 after staging a spectacular rally of 1,211.51 points or 1.52 per cent on a day-on-day basis.

The overall trading volume stayed flat at 441.33 million shares, a rise of 0.91pc. However, the traded value improved by 15.93pc to Rs27.22bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included PIA Holding Company (35.75m shares), Pak Elektron (25.83m shares), WorldCall Telecom (24.92m shares), Air Link Communication (21.33m shares) and Avanceon Ltd (19.88m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan (Rs105.00), Exide Pakis­tan(Rs93.45), PIA Holding Ltd (B)(Rs82.98), Sapphire Fibres (Rs72.69) and Reliance Cotton (Rs49.13).

The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize(Rs99.27), Pakistan Tobacco (Rs50.45) Data Agro Ltd (Rs38.57),

Ismail Industries (Rs32.60) and Mehmood Textile (Rs28.92).

Foreign investors rem­ained busy in value-hunting as they purchased shares worth $2.76m.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2024