Daily Times

Bulls staged a comeback at Kse-100 on Thursday, as Stocks accumulated gains throughout the session to clock at 42,647.35 index level after gaining 625.10 points by the session’s closing.

On Thursday, investors entered the market with strong sentiments as the rally was witnessed across the board, but the market interest was primarily witnessed in oil & gas marketing, exploration & production and banking stocks. Investors cheered the discovery of new gas reserves of over 1 Trillion Cubic Feet (tcf) in Kalat Block, by Pakistan Petroleum Limited. The discovery was made by the state-owned multinational petroleum company back in December 2019 from Margand X-1 Field, however, the PPIS reserve sheet of Dec-2019 does not contain any reserve information pertaining to Margand as reserve prospects develop gradually. Investprs are hoping that the newly discovered reserve size will bring a new life to Pakistan Exploration & Production space, as no significant discovery has been announced in the recent past.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index remained in the green zone throughout the day, marking its intraday high at 42,896.36 after accumulating 874.11 points. During the trading session, the index volumes jumped from 399.12 million shares in the previous session to 498.61 million shares, while the overall market volumes also increased from 707 million shares recorded in the previous session to 884.96 million shares.

The volume chart was led by Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Limited, followed by Hascol Petroleum Limited and Worldcall Telecom. The scrips exchanged 122.05 million, 48.1 million and 42.90 million shares, respectively.

Sectors which lifted the index were Commercial Banks with 173 points, Cement with 87 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 85 points, Fertilizer with 65 points and Power Generation & Distribution with 58 points. Among the scrips, most points added to the index was by Lucky Cement Limited which contributed 63 points followed by Muslim Commercial Bank with 58 points, Hub Power Company Limited with 53 points, Pakistan Petroleum Limited with 49 points and Pakistan State Oil with 37 points.

Sectors which dented the index were Technology & Communication with 25 points. Among the scrips, most points taken off the index was by TRG Pakistan Limited which stripped the index of 13 points followed by Systems Limited with 12 points, National Foods Limited with 9 points, Atlas Honda Limited with 8 points and Bank Al Habib Limited with 4 points.

Global markets: Recovery paused amid Covid-19 vaccines uncertainty

Markets across the globe attempted to shed some previous sessions’ losses following Wall Street bounce, however, investors followed the developments over Covid-19 vaccine, after AstraZeneca Plc paused a late-stage trial of one of the leading coronavirus vaccine candidates due to an unexplained illness in a study participant. The delay in the vaccine mounts fear of another wave of covid-19 and dims any chance of revival of economic activity.

In Asia, stocks traded mixed, with South Korea’s Kospi index and Japan’s Nikkei 225 adding gains. On Thursday, Nikkei 225 rose 0.88% to close at 23,235.47 while Kospi gained 0.87% to close at 2,396.48. The gain in the korean index was led by surge Kakao Games stocks following its debut in South Korea, finishing the trading day at more than double their issue price. However, the stocks in Hong Kong and China posted losses on the day. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed 0.64% lower at 24,313.54, after Yum China stocks slipped more than 5% from their issue price on the stock’s Thursday debut in the city. China’s Shanghai composite also declined 0.61% to about 3,234.82.

In Europe, stocks traded along the flat line as investors tread cautiously over mounting uncertainty, after the European Central Bank held interest rates steady and said it expected the euro zone to suffer a smaller recession than it had feared. The pan-European Stoxx 600 slipped 0.2% below the flatline by mid-afternoon, with mining stocks down 0.9% to lead losses. Autos stocks bucked the trend, up around 1%. Among major bourses, UK’s FTSE-100, Germany’s DAX and CAC-40 in France all closed on the flat line.

In U.S, stocks continue to make recovery for the second consecutive day as tech shares continued their rebound following a three-day sell-off. During the early trade, The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 200 points higher, while S&P 500 was also trading 0.6% higher. The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite was also trading over 1% higher.

Among the major tech stocks on course for recovery, Apple shares were trading 1.6% higher, building on a 4% jump from the previous session, while Tesla Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet and Microsoft were also trading higher.