Daily Times

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was dominated by bulls once again as the bourse continued to surge while volumes inflated to the highest level witnessed this year.

The benchmark KSE 100 Index marked its intraday high of 32,833.54 after gaining 470.19 points. It clocked at 32,752.25 points higher by 388.90 points. The KMI-30 Index gathered 746.30 points to close at 52,254.84, while the KSE All Share Index gained 258.48 points, settling at 23,794.56 points.

Foreign investors turned out to be net sellers on Wednesday with a net sale of $1.21 million. According to a weekly report on Specially Convertible Rupee Accounts (SCRA) released by the State Bank of Pakistan, the gross sale of securities during the week was recorded at Rs.24.7 billion, which is only 6.6 percent higher than the figures recorded last week. Meanwhile, the total purchase of securities stood at Rs.40.1 billion, which is 10.7 percent lower than the prior week.

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) released it latest figures which showed inflation surged to 11.40pc in September 2019, an increase of 0.9pc when compared with the preceding month.

The cement sector posted a growth of 11.50pc in September, which spurred solid sales growth numbers as Domestic sales surged by 11.58pc while exports rose by 11.60pc. Cement sales stood at 4.27 metric tonnes in September 2019, compared to 3.83MT in September 2018. However, Pioneer Cement Limited (PIOC) announced its financial results for the year ended June 30th 2019, wherein the company reported a notable decline in its net profits to Rs 790 million from Rs 1.6 billion earned last year, registering a decline of 52% YoY.

The overall market volumes were recorded at 324.26 million (highest in 2019). K-Electric Limited topped the volume chart followed by Unity Foods Limited and Dost Steels Limited. The scripts had traded 35.77 million shares, 22.75 million shares and 11.87 million shares respectively.

Banking (+90.04 points), cement (+65.11 points) and fertiliser (+55.11 points) were the sectors that kept the KSE-100 Index bullish. Among the companies, Habib Bank Limited, Lucky Cement Limited and Engro Corporation Limited contributed maximum points to the index.

The heads of the country’s leading business houses met with Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa to highlight their concerns regarding Pakistan’s economy followed by Prime Minister Imran Khan hosting a delegation on Thursday of representatives belonging to the various Chambers of Commerce and Industry. According to reports, the premier said that the government would provide all out assistance to facilitate the business community for profitable business activities.

PM Imran added that the future of the country was linked to economic progress, and that a strong partnership between the business community and the government was imperative for economic development.