KARACHI: A five-day losing streak finally came to an end at the stock market on Wednesday as the benchmark index advanced on the back of strong corporate earnings and crossed the 40,200-point mark.
Although the KSE-100 index opened on a negative note due to ongoing tensions with India, the tide changed in the wake of impressive results in the banking sector. Investors rushed to accumulate selected stocks, which pushed the index’s march to the north.
At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 322.31 points, or 0.81%, to settle at 40,279.38.
Elixir Securities’ analyst Muhammad Arbash said the stock market kicked off trading sideways and continued to fall in line with the previous day’s declining trend, hitting an intra-day low of 269 points. However, it picked up momentum on the back of gains in financial stocks.
United Bank Limited (+4.88%) and Habib Bank Limited (+1.36%) both announced their 2018 results, posting earnings per share (EPS) of Rs12.65 and Rs8.22 respectively besides announcing dividend of Rs3 and Rs1.25 per share, which were much above street expectations.
MCB Bank (+0.44%) also announced its 2018 result, declaring EPS of Rs17.17 and dividend of Rs4 per share, which came in line with street expectations.
Energy stocks followed suit and pushed the index higher, with Oil and Gas Development Company (+1.92%) and Pakistan Oilfields Limited (+1.98%) collectively contributing 65 points to the KSE-100 index.
Kot Addu Power Company (-5%) closed at its lower circuit because of no dividend payment in spite of improved EPS of Rs6.68 in the second quarter of FY19.
“Moving forward, we expect the market to maintain its upward momentum in the backdrop of expected improved flows from both local and foreign investors,” the analyst said.
Overall, trading volumes increased to 132.1 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 94.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.65 billion.
Shares of 337 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 141 stocks closed higher, 165 declined and 31 remained unchanged.
Pakistan International Bulk Terminal was the volume leader with 17.8 million shares, losing Rs0.77 to close at Rs11.27. It was followed by The Bank of Punjab with 7.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.28 to close at Rs13.59 and K-Electric Limited with 7 million shares, losing Rs0.06 to close at Rs6.34.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs104.7 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
