KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks closed in a green zone on Friday as the market celebrated the news of the government receiving the letter of intent from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) besides strong rupee gains.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened in the positive zone although investors’ participation remained dull throughout the opening session.
“The bulls made a comeback in the second session for value hunting across the board after Pakistan received the letter of intent from the IMF for the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme. The main board volumes continued to remain healthy although hefty volumes were witnessed in the third tier stocks,” he added.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 1.45 per cent, or 614.24 points, to close at 42,857.57 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 1.53 per cent, or 243.97 points, to close at 16,215.64 points.
As many as 357 scrips were active of which 261 advanced, 81 declined and 15 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 373.85 million shares, compared with the turnover of 281.73 million shares in the last trading session.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that mid-session pressure remained due to falling foreign exchange reserves, likely Rs15 billion new taxes for the revival of the IMF loan and a slump in the global crude oil prices.
“The reports of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approval to issue a letter of comfort in favour of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) for raising a loan facility of 50 billion rupees on urgent basis played a catalyst role in the bullish activity,” he added.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Sapphire Fiber up Rs74.80 to close at Rs1,127.80/share, Sapphire Textile up Rs74.16 to close at Rs1,062.94/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included Nestle Pakistan(XD) down Rs200 to close at Rs5,900/share, and Gatron Industries down Rs21.09 to close at Rs340.01/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in Cnergyico PK with a turnover of 49.76 million shares. The scrip gained 30 paisas to close at Rs5.69/share, followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 28.35 million shares.
It gained 6 paisas to close at Rs1.34/share. Pak Refinery remained the third with a turnover of 27 million shares. It gained Rs1.35 to finish at Rs19.46/share.
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