KSE-100 snaps losing streak, ends just shy of 47,000-point mark

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday staged a rebound and resumed its uptrend due to overall optimism on the back of currency appreciation. The benchmark KSE-100 closed the session just shy of the 47,000-psychological barrier.

The uptrend was witnessed on bets of status quo in the monetary policy announcement due next week on Monday (September 20).

The KSE-100 opened the session on a positive note, however, frequent dips were witnessed at regular intervals.

Nonetheless, bulls dominated most of the sessions as investors also cheered the easing of COVID-related restrictions in the country, which snapped a two-day losing streak at the bourse.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that after posting consecutive losses in the past two sessions, the index bounced back and touched an intra-day high of 242 points during the session, closing at +204 points (unadjusted).

“Besides the rebound in the technology sector, exploration and production stocks posted gains,” the report said, adding that cement and oil and gas marketing companies remained under selling pressure, whereas nominal gains were posted by steel, chemical and banking sector stocks.

The sentiment at the bourse improved after the Pakistani rupee started recovering against the US dollar and posted partial gains in the inter-bank market after supposed intervention by the State Bank of Pakistan.

The benchmark KSE-100 index crawled up by 203.74 points or 0.44% on Thursday, to close at 46,920.46 points.

Sectors contributing to the performance included technology (+90 points), exploration and production (+49 points), banks (+42 points), textile (+29 points) and vanaspati (+20 points).

During the session, shares of 518 listed companies were traded. At the end of the session, 275 stocks closed in the green, 222 in the red, and 21 remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, volumes increased from 332.8 million shares to 405.2 million shares (+22% day-on-day). The average traded value also increased from U$68 million to reach $98.2 million (+44% day-on-day).

Individually, major gainers were TRG (+101 points), Oil and Gas Development Company (+25 points), Pakistan Petroleum (+23 points), Unity Foods (+20 points) and Faysal Bank (+17 points).

On the flip side, major losers were AGP (-11 points), Meezan Bank (-9 points), Lucky Cement (-7 points), Systems Limited (-7 points) and Millat Tractors (-7 points).

Service Fab (R) was the volume leader with 61.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.57 to close at Rs2.74. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 44.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.20 to close at Rs3.32, and TRG Pakistan with 32.3 million shares, gaining Rs9.15 to close at Rs176.7.