Daily Times

In the wake of Thursday’s intra-day profit-taking, the benchmark KSE-100 finished 0.48 percent higher, with cement and banking sector stocks leading the advance. The cement sector dominated the stock market with investors piling into shares. The benchmark KSE-100 Index finished the day in the green, reaching an intraday high of 44,947.38 with adding 574 points. The benchmark KSE-100 index increased by 212.81 points to 44,586.04, while the lowest point was 44,373.23.

The KSE-30 Index gained 80.60 points to close at 17,543.84, while the KSE All Share Index gained 118.07 points to close at 30,578.76. Shares of 384 companies were traded on Thursday, compared to 387 on Wednesday. Stock prices rose in 192 firms, declined in 174 companies, and were steady in 18 companies. WorldCall Telecom led the index in the top five leaders today with a turnover of 57.9 million shares and closed at Rs2.54 with a decrease of 15 paise per share. Around 37 million shares of Telecard were traded today and the stock closed at Rs19.26 with an increase of 66 paise per share. Telecard Limited declared an EPS of Rs1.69 for FY21. The corporation also announced 5pc bonus shares. The cement sector contributed 101 out of the 212 points gained on Thursday as a result of the drop in the price of coal on the international market, which fell by more than 13 percent in that day’s trading session. Commercial banks came second with an increase of 65 points, followed by technology and communication with 36 points, textile composite sector with 23 points, refinery sector and engineering sector with six points each.

Rupee snaps losing streak against dollar with 9-paisa gain: The rupee snapped the losing streak against the US dollar with a gain of nine paisas (0.05 percent) on Thursday.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the US dollar opened at Rs170.96 and closed at Rs170.87. Within the open market, the rupee was traded at Rs171/171.50 per dollar, showing a little improvement as it hit Rs172 a day earlier. The rupee made an all-time historic low of 170.96 on Wednesday last against the US dollar. The Pakistani rupee shed Rs0.39 during the last four days against the US dollar, while depreciation during the fiscal year 2021-22 has been Rs13.45. The local unit has shed Rs10.60 against the US dollar in the current year 2021. The local currency has maintained a downtrend after it touched 22-month high of Rs152.27 in May 2021, losing a cumulative Rs18.56 in the past five months to date. The fresh all-time low of the local currency can be attributed to the latest reports of massive rise in import bill during the first quarter of the current fiscal year. The higher import bill also widened the trade deficit significantly. The trade deficit ballooned by almost 100 percent to $11.66 billion during the quarter under review, compared with the deficit of $5.81 billion in the same period of the last year.

The currency experts said that the rupee made some gains as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) introduced more restrictions to curb outflows of foreign currency during the last couple of weeks. The experts said the measures taken by the central bank, inflows of home remittances and export receipts helped the rupee make recovery during the session. TLTP