KARACHI: Bulls took charge of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday, as the indices headed north right from the word go amid improved investor sentiment.
Global equity markets displayed a mixed performance, whereas crude oil prices moved south from the previous close; WTI crude price declining 2.88pc to $39.50 while Brent crude oil price falling 2.51pc to $41.5.
“The market finally made a positive move today, as buying activity was observed across the board. However, the State Bank’s notification to transfer federal government-related deposits in part from commercial banking system to the central bank caused selling pressure in some banking stocks (BOP and NBP),” said a report issued by AHL Ltd. “A number of mid-cap stocks (usually traded in high volumes) like UNITY, TRG and HASCOL traded at or near upper circuits in the latter part of the session.”
MARKET SUMMARY
The benchmark KSE-100 Index remained in the green throughout the day, marking its intraday high at 39,920.13 after gaining 792.65 points. It closed higher by 722.48 points at 39,849.96.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index accumulated 1,426.60 points to end at 63,393.00, while the KSE All Share Index added 471.06 points, settling at 28,327.49.
The overall market volumes surged from 400.97 million shares to 431.14 million shares (+6pc). Average traded value also increased by 9pc, from $75.4 million to $82.5 million. Hascol Petroleum Ltd (HASCOL +6.12pc), Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY +7.45pc) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG +7.37pc) led the volume chart, exchnaging 59.71 million, 34.57 million and 23.97 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that drove the benchmark index north included cement (+132.53 points), pharmaceutical (+74.30 points) and oil & gas marketing (+65.78 points). Among the companies, Lucky Cement Ltd (LUCK +46.16 points), The Searle Company Ltd (SEARL +39.05 points) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG +32.44 pts) remained the top contributors.
Adding 3.99pc to its cumulative market capitalization, the pharmaceutical sector ended that session’s best performer, with Abbot Laboratories (Pakistan) Ltd (ABOT +1.81pc), The Searle Company Ltd (SEARL +7.50pc), GlaxoSmithKline (Pakistan) Ltd (GLAXO +2.77pc) and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd (GSKCH +1.79pc) posting decent gains.
Meanwhile, in a notification to the exchange, Pioneer Cement Ltd (PIOC +4.33pc) informed that its Waste Heat Recovery Plant, having power capacity of 12MW, has commenced operations from Wednesday.
On the financial side, Kohinoor Power Company Ltd (KOHP +13.27pc) announced a loss per share of Rs0.98 for FY20 (Rs-1.12 in FY19), Kohat Textile Mills Ltd (KOHTM 0.00pc) declared an LPS of Rs3.14 for FY20 (-Rs3.22 last year), while Pace (Pakistan) Ltd (PACE +11.81pc) recorded an LPS of Rs1.43 for FY20 (-Rs3.33 in FY19).
