Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan equities closed at an all-time high led by investors’ interest in oil, fertilizers and banking scrips amid speculations ahead of major earning announcements this week.

Pakistan stock market’s main KSE 100 index rallied by 511 points or 1.03 percent to close at its highest ever level of 49,876. Pressure remained on concerns for foreign outflows and in selected cement stocks after WAPDA canceled some CPEC related contracts for Dasu Hydropower Project.

Higher global crude prices, ECC approval of fertilizer subsidies for 2017 and export of surplus Urea fertilizer, reports of positive impact of textile package all played a catalyst role in the record close, senior analyst Ahsan Mehnti observed.

Market opened positive and gained steadily throughout as consumers, industrials including Steels and Autos carried momentum on steady domestic liquidity. Main highlight of the was K-Electric that traded above its deal price of Rs 10.10 per share as local institutional investors reportedly hoped that foreign selling had exhausted.

KEL fell short of just 3.4 million shares to break its all-time high traded volume however contributed more than one-third of total traded shares on KSE All Index and nearly two-third of total volumes on KSE100 Index, said analysts at Elixir Securities. ECC has allowed urea exports of 0.3 million tons without any subsidy.

The government however has attached the condition of ‘no subsidy’. “The ‘no subsidy’ condition can have two meanings. It can either mean that the government is not providing the transport subsidy of around $100/ton to urea producers for exports or it can also refer to the gas subsidy per bag that is being provided to urea manufacturers. We are of the view that the subsidy amount being referred to is related to the first case of transportation cost,” said analysts at the Topline Securities.

FATIMA, FFC and EFERT gained by 5 percent, 1 percent and 2.6 percent respectively in the wake of ECC decision. Cements traded volatilely and closed mixed as Cherat Cement made a surprise announcement of another expansion, installation of third cement production line having a capacity of 7,100 tons. However, the stock declined by 0.2 percent. Financials closed mixed on relatively less volumes, while Oils closed mostly in green tracking recovery in global crude.

The government’s plan to import further 1200 mmcfd of LNG led SNGP to gain by 5 percent. Overall, volumes increased by 30 percent to 600 million shares, while value increased by 6 percent Rs 24.4 billion/$232 million.

Volumes were led by KEL with a staggering 213 million shares traded, stock gained by 6.5 percent. Other volume leaders were Lotte Chemical 27 million, Japan Power 25 million, Dost Steel 20 and TRG Pak 16 million.

On Monday shares of 439 companies were actively traded at the bourse of which shares of 277 companies ended in the green, 146 in the red, while 16 remained unchanged. Market players expect current momentum to continue in near-term with KSE100 Index comfortably surpassing the 50,000 psychological level on strong domestic liquidity and earnings and payout excitement.