Daily Times

Bulls rallied on Thursday to mark historic volumes of 826.81 million shares, breaching 800 million mark for the fourth time in the last 10 years. The kse-100 index crossed 40,000 mark to close at 40,166.12 points, after gaining 283.34 points.

The Kse-100 index has been accumulating gains ever since the start of the fiscal year 2021, and since then the index has witnessed a strong rally and delivered a return of over 16% till date. The investors booked profits throughout the session but failed to dent the index following heavy buying spree. Individual investors remained the top buyers during the session and bough $5.5 million worth of equities followed by brokers who were net buyers of worth $0.6 million worth if equities. However, foreign investors remained net sellers of worth $1.2 million worth of equities.

The investor sentiments were buoyed by the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), which revealed Pakistan’s exports increased by 25.08% to $2 billion during the month of July, as compared to $1.599 billion in June 2020. On the contrary, imports in July 2020 decreased by 2.12 percent, clocking in at USD 3.64 billion compared to USD 3.719 billion in June 2020. While country’s overall trade deficit shrinked by 10.24% during the first month (July) of the current fiscal year (2020-21), as compared to the corresponding month of last year.

Moreover, investors’ sentiments further lifted over decreasing Covid-19 cases and government’s plans to reopen the economy to revive the economic activity in the country. After the market closed Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar announced in a televised address, that the government will lift lockdown restrictions with relevant and revised standard operating procedures (SOPs) in most of the sectors including Education, Tourism and Restaurants, which will further boost market sentiments on Friday.

The volume chart was Worldcall Telecom, followed by Power Cement Ltd and Maple Leaf Cement Factory. The scrips exchanged 242.82 million, 45.34 million and 38.47 million shares, respectively.

Sectors which lifted the index included commercial banks with 94 points, technology with 43.72 points and oil & gas exploration 41.24 points. Among the scrips , Muslim Commercial Bank Ltd contributed most points to the index, lifting index with 65 points, followed by TRG Pakistan Ltd with 39.63 points and National Bank of Pakistan with 21.78 points, Pakistan Oilfields Ltd with 20 points and K-Electric Ltd with 17 points.

However, the sectors which added pressure to the index included Miscellaneous with 3 points, Leather & Tanneries with 2 points, Automobile Parts & Accessories with 2 points, Vanaspati & Allied Industries with 1 points and Pharmaceuticals with 1 points. Among the scrips, most points taken off the index was by Engro Corporation Ltd which stripped the index of 16 points followed by The Hub Power Company Ltd with 14 points, United Bank Ltd with 9 points, Allied Bank Ltd with 8 points.

Global markets: Global stocks were mixed on the back of devastating impact of coivid-19 on global economies followed by a stalemate on over $ 1 trillion U.S stimulus package, which threatens an event of another major sell-off if U.S lawmakers failed to agree on a rescue bill. Investors interest in the risk assets continue to diminish amid instability, as they are parking their stakes into safe haven stocks i.e spot gold.

In Asia stocks witnessed a mixed trend as investors tread cautiously over escalating Sino -US tensions after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said U.S aims to ban “untrusted” Chinese apps such as TikTok and WeChat from U.S. app stores. That development followed tensions between Washington and Beijing heating up in recent weeks. South Korea’s Kospi index remain the top performing index in the region, as it closed 1.33% higher after hares of automaker giant Hyundai Motor jumped 7.84%. Chinese stocks also advanced on Thursday with Benchmark index shanghai composite closing 0.26% higher to about 3,386.46 points. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed 0.69% lower at 24,930.58, while Japan’s benchmark index Nikkei 225 dipped 0.43% to close at 22,418.15.

In Europe, stocks pulled back as investors monitored a slew of corporate earnings and reacted to the Bank of England’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged. In its alarming review, the BOE said the U.K.’s gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to have fallen 20% in the second quarter when compared to the final three months of last year.

The Monetary Policy Committee’s central projection was for U.K. GDP to continue to recover beyond the near term, but it warned that the economy was unlikely to exceed its pre-pandemic level until the end of 2021. Following BOE’s statement, UK’s FTSE-100 led regional losses among major equity market, as the index fell by 1.39%, followed by CAC-40 in France which dipped 0.97%. Germany’s DAX also failed to perform and closed 0.46% lower.

In the U.S, Wall Street witnessed lack of investors’ interest as most of the stocks fell flat on Thursday as investors waited for a break through at Capitol Hill as lawmakers were still at odds over how much stimulus is appropriate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than 10 points, which is 0.04 %, while S&P 500 dipped 0.05%. The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite was also remained flat during the early trade.