KARACHI: The stock market witnessed increase of 866 points on Thursday on rise in international oil prices and reports of further cut in policy rate.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 31,837 points as against 30,971 points showing an increase of 866 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the stock market saw a jump of 1038 points during the session and closed +866 points that was reflection of a combination of factors including 5 percent increase in the price of WTI, PIB yields trending below 9 percent and expectation of further rate cut by SBP in the coming monetary policy.
ECC’s consideration of issuance of Sukuk II also paved the way for stock market heavy weight HUBC to trade near upper circuit, after consolidating for past couple of sessions. Similarly, PSO leapt forward on the prospects of Sukuk II issuance to trade near upper circuit.
Among Banks, MCB remained steadfast and with the apparent slow-down of selling pace in HBL and UBL from foreign investors, the stock market found solid support from banking sector.
Jump in international crude prices helped OGDC touch 100 rupee mark for the first time since March 16, 2020 after which it kept falling over several sessions and touched an intra-day low of 73.25 on March 30th.
Cement sector realized trading volumes of 60.9 million shares, followed by O&GMCs (27.3 million) and Banks (16.6 million) at the stock market. Among scrips, UNITY made a consecutive top of 28.7 million shares, followed by HASCOL (25.8 million) and PAEL (14.1 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+201 points), E&P (+150 points), Fertilizer (+102 points), Cement (+94 points) and O&GMCs (+67 points). Volumes increase from 181 million shares to 216.5 million shares (+19 percent DoD) at the stock market. Average traded value also increased by 44 percent to reach US$ 51.0 million as against US$ 35.1 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include MLCF, HASCOL, UNITY, KEL and PIOC, which formed 35 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the stock market include PPL (+52 points), FFC (49 points), OGDC (+45 points), UBL (+45 points) and PSO (+40 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include PAKT (-11 points), COLG (-3 points), HGFA (-3 points), GLAXO (-2 points), and JDWS (-1 points}.