KARACHI: The Pakistan bourse remained positive on Tuesday to close in the green territory, as the market welcomed the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) decision to maintain the key policy rate at 15 per cent, analysts said.
An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the central bank kept the policy rate unchanged to keep it stable in the near term, citing a significant decrease in demand and inflation tapering off in the third quarter of fiscal year 2023.
“The deputy governor said on Bloomberg that Pakistan is over financed for fiscal year 2023, easily meeting $33 billion finance needs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced taking up Pakistan’s seventh and eighth review on its board meeting agenda on August 29,” he added.
On the flip side, the rupee is back in hot waters after depreciating against the dollar in the last few sessions. Going forward, we expect the market to perform well. Hence, we recommend our investors adopt the “Buy on Dip” strategy in the upcoming sessions, he said.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 1.26 per cent, or 540.11 points, to close at 43,366.77 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 1.59 per cent, or 258.58 points, to close at 16,490.83 points.
An analyst at JS Global said that the market welcomed the decision of SBP to pause monetary tightening for now. The KSE-100 Index gained over 540 points to eventually close at 43,367.
“Going forward, we recommend investors adopt a buy-on-dips strategy in banking, exploration and production (E&P) and textile sectors,” he added.
As many as 341 scrips were active of which 211 advanced, 107 declined and 23 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 324.44 million shares, compared with the turnover of 194.66 million shares in the last trading session.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the PSX witnessed a bullish session as the KSE-100 Index traded in the green zone throughout the day.
“The investors’ confidence got a boost due to the policy rate being unchanged. The cement sector remained in the limelight while hefty volumes were witnessed in the main board and third tier stocks,” he added.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Nestle Pakistan up Rs242 to close at Rs6,197/share, Colgate Palm up Rs64.99 to close at Rs2,400/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included Pak Services down Rs95 to close at Rs1,175/share, and Sanofi-Aventis down Rs70 to close at Rs1,270/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in Hascol Petrol with a turnover of 64.11million shares. The scrip gained 35 paisas to close at Rs6.94/share, followed by K-Electric with a turnover of 25.22 million shares. It gained 5 paisas to close at Rs3.40/share. WorldCall Telecom remained the third with a turnover of 16.97 million shares. It shed 2 paisas to finish at Rs1.36/share.
[embedpost slug=”pakistan-stocks-exchange-mixed-on-last-day-of-week/”]
