Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan shares snapped four-day losing streak and closed Wednesday higher with benchmark KSE100 index settling over 42,800 level, up 2.2% by gaining 928 points.

Market opened positive and quickly edged up in early trade as index names fetched interest from local institutions on attractive valuations and relative calm on political front. The index gained over 550 points in just the first half hour of trading as investors took positions at lower prices. Buying continued throughout the day. The day’s low of 41,927 points was left in the dust very early in the session.

Although foreigners sold $2.9 million worth of shares, local institutional investors and individuals came to rescue the market and cumulatively bought $6.14 million worth of shares.

All major sectors including the lagging Cements bounced back while mid and small cap plays also closed higher albeit on relatively less volumes on retail buying. Habib Bank led the gainers list and added 99 points to KSE100 Index while Engro Corp, Sui Northern Gas Co, Pakistan State Oil and Hub Power were also among top five gainers.

Volumes and traded value declined by 23% each to 167 million shares and Rs 9.4bn/$89 million, respectively.

Interest was also seen in HBL (+3.2%), ENGRO (+3%), PSO (+3.8%), HUBC (+2.5%), BAHL (+4.3%), PPL (+1.6%), FCCL (+4.9%), UBL (+1.3%), MCB (+1.6%) and DGKC (+3%) which added 385 points to index gain while only 10 stocks closed lower which eroded 24 points from the index.

Stocks of 396 companies were traded of which 314 closed in green, 71 in red and 11 remained unchanged.

TRG Pak with 14.3 million shares traded topped the volume leaders list followed by Azgard Nine 12.7 million, Aisha Steel Mill 8.8 million, Pak Elektron 7.2 million, and Power Cement 5.8 million.

With benchmark KSE100 index finding support near 42,000, analysts predict that the market will edge up further on improved volumes as smart money flows in to take advantage.

Published in Daily Times, August 24^th 2017.