Bulls stage comeback at PSX on positive triggers

• KSE-100 index gains 200.25 points to settle at 43,230.22.
• Investors focus on encouraging economic data, ignore political uncertainty.
• Shares of 317 companies were traded during the session.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) largely ignored political uncertainty on Monday, the first day of the rollover week, notching up modest gains as investors focused on encouraging economic data.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the current account deficit fell “sharply” to $0.5 billion, the lowest level in the ongoing fiscal year 2021-22.

Furthermore, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin assured the nation that talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding the seventh review of the $6 billion loan programme will be finalised this week, which boosted investors’ confidence.

Moreover, a deal between the government and Barrick Gold Corporation regarding Reko Diq kept the investment climate optimistic.

At the close, the KSE-100 index gained 200.25 points, or 0.47%, to settle at 43,230.22 points.

Arif Habib Limited in its post-market commentary noted benchmark KSE-100 index stayed in the green zone today as the current account deficit shrinks 78% in February.

“Moreover, the federal and provincial government of Balochistan have signed a new agreement with Barrick Gold Corporation of Canada for extraction of gold and copper reserves from Reko Diq with an investment of $10 billion,” it stated.

Meanwhile, in the exploration and production sector, Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) and Pakistan Petroleum (PPL) stayed in the limelight as the federal government’s 25% shareholding will be divided equally amongst three state-owned-entities (SOEs) – Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and Government Holdings Pakistan Limited (GHPL).

“Mainboard activity remained dull,” the brokerage house said, adding that on the flip-side, activity continued to remain side-ways as the market witnessed hefty volumes in the third tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance included fertiliser (+58.6 points), cement (+37.8 points), exploration and production (+24.4 points), banks (+21 points) and investment banks (+17.2 points).

Shares of 317 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 165 scrips closed in the green, 126 in the red, and 26 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes dropped to 124.94 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 180.43 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.93 billion.

Summit Bank was the volume leader with 16.07 million shares traded, gaining Rs2.86 to close at Rs0.53. It was followed by Hum Network Limited with 8.92 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.24 to close at Rs6.53, and WorldCall Telecom with 7.97 million shares traded, losing Rs0.03 to close at Rs1.47.