KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market closed higher on Thursday as the investors celebrated Pakistan’s measures to resume negotiation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) besides increased activity in the cement sector.
An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the benchmark KSE-100 Index witnessed a positive session as global oil prices fell on Thursday.
“The cut-off yields of T-bills declined by 30 basis points to 55 basis points in yesterday’s auction. Activities were seen in the cement sector as the Prime Minister ordered the early start of work on the Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway project along with four other motorway projects,” he added.
“Additionally, the cement manufacturers raised the prices Rs50/bag in the North which further fueled the investor’s interest. The domestic index seemed unharmed despite a 75 basis points hike in the policy rate by US Fed reserves.
Going forward, we expect the market to react in line with any inflows coming in. Hence, we recommend our investors keep booking profits at a higher level.”
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 0.70 per cent, or 291.37 points, to close at 41,730.16 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 0.78 per cent, or 122.89 points, to close at 15,937.89 points.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued positive momentum as investors’ confidence was boosted amid the government announcing a further increase in the prices of fuel in order to keep up with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
“The KSE-100 Index stayed in the green zone throughout the day. Activity remained healthy across the board as the cement sector remained in the limelight due to price increase in the North region,” he added.
As many as 336 scrips were active of which 173 advanced, 134 declined and 29 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 162.17 million shares, compared with the turnover of 141.70 million shares in the last trading session.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Rafhan Maize up Rs695 to close at Rs10,495/share, Nestle Pakistan up Rs104.90 to close at Rs5,880/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included Colgate Palm down Rs47 to close at Rs2,153/share, and Sapphire Textile down Rs43.61 to close at Rs1,106.38/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 21.55 million shares. The scrip shed 5 paisas to close at Rs1.42/share, followed by Oilboy Energy with a turnover of 11.39 million shares. It gained Re1 to close at Rs2.01/share. Maple Leaf remained the third with a turnover of 10.23 million shares. It gained 99 paisas to finish at Rs27.73/share.