KARACHI: Continuing from the overnight optimism driven by strong corporate results, equity investors were busy cherry-picking, propelling the KSE 100 index above the 78,000 level on Friday.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the bull run was led by cement, banking and oil scrips amid a solid corporate earnings outlook.

He said the rebound in global equities, easing US recession fears, rising SBP foreign exchange reserves, falling Karachi interbank offered rates and imminent IMF board approval for the new Extended Fund Facility were the key factors which fuelled investor sentiments.

Topline Securities Ltd said Mari Petroleum, United Bank, MCB Bank, Systems Ltd and Meezan Bank cumulatively added 566 points to the index.

As a result, the benchmark index hit an intraday high of 78,823.14 points and a low of 78,051.08. However, it settled at 78,569.59 after adding 695.36 points or 0.89pc on a day-on-day basis.

The overall trading volume fell 14.74pc to 420.40 million shares. The traded value also dipped 19.836pc to Rs20.72bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Kohinoor Spinning (64.78m shares), Yousaf Weaving (24.85m shares), The Organic Meat (18.11m shares), PIA Holding Company (15.55m shares) and WorldCall Telecom (13.76m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Mari Petroleum (Rs285.88), Unilever Foods(Rs145.94), Rafhan Maize (Rs90.71), Ismail Industries (Rs64.87) and Khyber Textile (Rs52.35).

The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Leiner Pak Gelatine (Rs45.22), Nestle Pakistan (Rs25.00), Data Agro Ltd (Rs22.95), Premium Textile (Rs12.66) and JDW Sugar Mills (Rs7.11).

Foreign investors remained net buyers as they bo­­u­­ght shares worth $0.02m.

A report on liquidity dy­­namics by Arif Habib Ltd said the KSE-100 index emerged as the world’s best-performing equity market in FY24, delivering an extraordinary return of 94pc (89pc in rupee terms). The bourse attracted foreign inflows amounting to $141m during the year, marking the highest level of foreign investment in a decade.

Cumulatively, foreign inflows through SCRA into Pakistan’s equity and debt markets during FY24 amounted to $90m and $589m, respectively. Most of these flows were direc­ted towards T-bills, which received $575m, while PIBs attracted $15m.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2024