Daily Times

Karachi: The Prime Minister’s export package has revitalized Pakistan equities which bucked the recent sideways trend and closed at a new all-time high above 49,000 helped by institutional buying. The benchmark KSE 100 index gained 505 points or 1.02 percent to close at its highest ever level of 49,371 mark.

Stocks opened positive and the benchmark KSE100 Index continued to gain ground during the day with notable index names trading higher.

The fertilizer sector saw a revival in interest on rumors that the government is going to restore the subsidy on Urea and DAP, bringing Fauji Fertilizer and Engro Fertilizers in the limelight, said analysts at Elixir Securities.

Stocks showed strong recovery as investors weigh in on the Rs 180 billion PM Exports Package. Oil stocks battered on a sharp fall in global crude prices amid OPEC output cut uncertainties.

Investor speculations on likely record financial results in banking, auto and pharma stocks played a catalyst role in a bullish close, according to Ahsan Mehanti, senior analysts.

Financial and cement sectors both gained on reported local interest, while textile sector scrips traded volatile and closed mixed as key stocks succumbed to profit-taking at their intra-day highs. Heavy weights like MCB, UBL, FFC and HUBC contributed 225 points.

Meanwhile, E&Ps closed little changed tracking global crude. Noteworthy was Hub Power which gained 2.6 percent in the last minutes of trading as the company notified about exchange of increasing stake in its JV China Power Hub Generation Company from 26 percent to 47.5 percent. This led the stock price to gain by 2.5 percent, analysts at Topline Securities said. Engro Corp closed in the green and is likely to open the gap on news of additional gas that hit the wires after market close.

EFERT announced in a notice through PSX that ECC has directed additional available gas of up to 26mmcfd from Mari Petroleum’s Company to the company’s old plant for continuous operation of the plant. This led to the stock price to gain by 1.8 percent.

Overall, volumes increased by 11.3% to 460 million shares, while value increased by 23.8 percent Rs24.9 billion /$239 million.

Market players seethe market to carry the momentum and the benchmark KSE100 Index to test the 50,000 mark in near term with local liquidity once again taking the
front seat.