KARACHI: Despite aggressive selling pressure from all segments, barring individuals, the stock market on Wednesday remained in the bullish mind of frame amid growing optimism of an interest rate cut and the finance minister’s assertion that the economy was on the right direction and set to achieve stability with the IMF loan.

Value hunting by individuals helped the index stage a robust rally. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Cor­p­o­ration said stocks closed bullish amid speculations about a potential rate cut in the SBP monetary policy announcement on Sept 12 after CPI inflation stood at 9.6pc for August.

Topline Securities Ltd said the positive momentum followed the finance minister’s remarks that the IMF’s $7 billion Extended Fund Facility approval is on track, with Pakistan nearing assurances on external financing.

Key stocks, including Mari Petroleum, Oil and Gas Development Comp­any, Engro Fertiliser, Lucky Cement, and Bank Alhabib, drove the market’s rise, contributing 290 points to the index.

As a result, the KSE-100 index hit an intraday high of 78,890.79 and a low of 78,488.88. However, it settled at 78,848.01 after adding 491.69 points or 0.63pc day-on-day.

The trading volume surged 122pc to 969.76 million shares. The traded value also rose 42.82pc to Rs17.51bn day-on-day.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom (234.63m shares), Pervez Ahmed Consu­ltancy (48.68m shares), Kohinoor Spinning Ltd (45.08m shares), Flying Cement (35.34m shares) and Symmetry Group (30.33m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increa­ses in their prices in absolute terms were Mari Petrol­eum (Rs130.69), Unilever Foods (Rs114.50), Rafhan Maize (Rs57.12), Reliance Cotton (Rs48.96) and Sapp­h­ire Fibres Ltd (Rs27.56).

The companies registering significant losses in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan (Rs82.33), PIA Holding Ltd [B] (Rs54.92), Ismail Industries (Rs45.23), Hoechst Pakistan (Rs37.56) and Pakistan Engineering Works Ltd (Rs36.94).

Foreign investors turned net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $3.150m.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2024