KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks witnessed a range-bound session on Monday, gaining points, while the market is expected to remain range-bound in the upcoming days due to a lack of positive triggers and the upcoming major events such as budget announcement, meetings with the IMF team and the Financial Action Task Force, analysts said.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks close higher led by selected scrips on the pre-budget speculations.
“The oil stocks outperformed on surging global crude oil prices. The reports of an upbeat budget deficit target at 5 per cent for FY23 and Rs800 billion PSDP commitments played a catalytic role in the bullish close.”
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 0.63 per cent, or 262.33 points, to close at 41,577.21 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 0.86 per cent, or 134.56 points, to close at 15,868.31 points.
As many as 342 scrips were active, of which 193 advanced, 126 declined and 23 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 189.24 million shares, compared with the turnover of 225.39 million shares in the last trading session.
An analyst at Topline Securities said the equities closed in the green zone. During the day, the KSE-100 Index made an intraday low of 282 points. However, value hunting kicked in at the aforesaid level, which assisted the benchmark index to show some recovery, which led to make an intraday high of 360 points.
“Initial positivity came from the cement sector, as cement prices in the South Region increased by Rs25/bag (effective from June 6, 2022), where Lucky Cement, Maple Leaf Cement, DG Khan Cement and Kohat Cement closed higher.”
“Further, investors’ interest was also witnessed in E&Ps sector, where Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) closed higher, as the news flows suggest that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has raised the gas prices for SNGPL and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) by 45 per cent and 44 per cent.”
The companies that reflected the highest gains included Bata Pakistan, up Rs61.59 to close at Rs1,771.59/share; and Sapphire Fibre, up Rs50.58 to close at Rs1,149/share.
The companies, which reflected the most losses included Indus Motor, down Rs28.28 to close at Rs1,225.15/share; and Rafhan Maize, down Rs155 to close at Rs9,800/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in Unity Foods with a turnover of 33.13 million shares. The scrip shed 21 paisas to close at Rs21.07/share; followed by Pak Refinery with a turnover of 16.29 million shares. It gained nine paisas to close at Rs17.46. TPL Properties remained the third with a turnover of 11.66 million shares. It gained Rs1.29 to finish at Rs18.55/share.
