Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended its recovery for the second straight session on Thursday after shedding 7,923 points in previous sessions, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 1,188.61 points (+1.95 percent) to close at 62,052.23 points. The market opened on a positive note and remained in the green territory throughout the session, albeit, some profit-taking was witnessed in the last 90 minutes trading. The bulls regained their dominance two days after an all-out rout when the benchmark of representative shares recorded its biggest day-on-day decline. On Wednesday, the stocks regained some of the lost ground amid value-hunting by investors. According to experts, value hunters were in action leading to across the board buying. Moreover, fresh liquidity is being injected as the market enters a new month, they said. They attributed the bullish momentum to “adequate amount of futures positions being rolled over.” They said that the market bounced back sharply during the last two sessions after a correction. They noted that market participants are expecting interest rates to decline in 2024, coupled with a broad-based re-rating of the market. “More than 125 stocks are trading 70pc below the May 2017 market cap in dollar terms. There is a significant valuation gap between Pakistan and other markets and that should keep foreign investors active,” they added. The benchmark index traded in a range of 1,658.5 points, showing an intraday high of 62,750.77 points and an intraday low of 61,092.27 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 883.39 points (+2.13 percent) to close at 41,568.01 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 658.86 points (+2.17 percent) to close at 30,325.24 points. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 15.70mn shares to 378.62mn shares against 394.32mn traded in the previous session. However, the overall market volumes increased by 6.88 million shares to 676.24mn shares against 669.36mn shares traded a session earlier. Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 62.89mn shares, followed by WTL (46.19mn) and FFL (43.05mn). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, WTL, FFL, AKBL,and CNERGY, which formed over 34 percent of total volumes. A total of 377 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 355 in the previous session, out of which shares of 282 closed up, shares of 79 companies closed down while shares of 16 companies remained unchanged. A total of 98 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 96 in the previous session, out of which share prices of 83 companies closed up, 14 companies closed down and one remained unchanged. The number of total trades increased to 232,377 from 213,260 in the previous session, while the value traded increased by Rs. 4.16bn to Rs. 20.28 against Rs. 16.12bn in the previous session. In terms of rupee, UPFL remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs. 999 (+4.76 pe rcent) per share, closing at Rs. 21,999. The runner-up remained NESTLE, the share price of which climbed up by Rs. 200 (+2.56 pe rcent) to Rs. 8,000. FASM remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs. 20.75 (-5.75 percent) per share, closing at Rs. 340, followed by PSMC, the share price of which fell by Rs. 17.33 (-2.99 pe rcent) to close at Rs. 562.36 per share. The major sectors taking the index towards north remained commercial banks (374 points), oil & gas exploration companies (173 points), cement (160 points), power generation & distribution (121 points), fertilizer (106 points), textile composite (50 points), food and personal care products (45 points), and oil & gas marketing companies (42 points). Ten major companies adding points to the index remained HUBC (66 points), BAHL (59 points), MARI (58 points), LUCK (36 points), OGDC (33 points), MEBL (31 points), MCB (27 points), UBL (24 points), BAFL (23 points), and EFERT (22 points). The major sectors taking the index towards south were technology & communication (35 points), and insurance and automobile assemblers (2 points each). Ten major companies depriving the index of points remained SYS (21 points), PSMC (6 points), KEL (5 points), EFUG and CNERGY (4 points each), and NBP, PTC, FFL, MTL and PRL (3 points each).
