KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday crossed 48,000 mark after adding huge 433.31 points to take the tally to 48240.28 points.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 48357.57 points and lowest level of 47806.97 points, with the volume of over 376 million shares and value of Rs 18.75 billion. As many as 405 companies were active; of which 244 advanced, 143 declined and 18 remained unchanged.
K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 43.80 million shares, gaining Rs 0.15 to finish at Rs 9.52. It was followed by Dost Steels Ltd with 31.52 million shares, adding Rs 1.00 to end at Rs 13.12W and Summit Bank with 23.10 million shares, gaining Rs 0.53 to close at Rs 4.93.
The top three gainers were Wyeth Pak Ltd with price per share of 4905.25 (183.50), Nestle Pakistan with price per share of 9137.50 (137.50) and Sanofi-Aventis share of 2959.71 (103.28).
The top three losers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 8499.99 (-264.37), Bhanero Tex with price per share of 760 (-30) and Service Ind Ltd per share of 1477.60 (-19.51).
Earlier, the stocks opened bullish and crossed the psychological barrier of 48,000 as the benchmark 100-index added 323.57 points to reach 48130.54 points level in early trading of first day of year 2017. The Pakistan Stock Exchange continued its upward rally till midday and gained another 436 points to reach 48242.99 points.
Last year, the PSX rallied 45.6 percent to become the Asia’s best performing market. The multiyear growth trajectory received boost after the MSCI announcement to reclassify Pakistan to Emerging Markets, resulting in KSE100 index outperforming its peers in Frontier Markets and most of the countries in Emerging Markets. According to Bloomberg, Pakistan market posted 5th highest return in the world.
Foreign investors continued to offload equities during 2016 (net selling $340m) as most of the EM and FM funds kept facing redemptions. Despite all the gains, 2017 looks very favourable for the Pakistan equities as the MSCI reclassification has added cherry to the already built investment theme; based upon political stability, macroeconomic strength, better security situation and Chinese investments.
Automobiles and Cement remained top performing sectors in 2016 posting market cap gains of 73 percent and 66 percent, respectively. Amongst top 30 stocks in terms of market capitalisation, Pakistan Oil Fields (POL), Searle Company (SEARL) and Mari Petroleum (MARI) remained top performers posting gains of 112 percent, 106 percent, and 98 percent respectively in 2016.
Average volumes at the local bourse increased by 14 percent to 281 million, whereas average value was up only 2 percent to Rs11.6 billion ($111m) in 2016. In the derivative market, traded value in single stock futures stood flat and remained at Rs3.0 billion/ $29 million a day in 2016 as against Rs3.1 billion/$30 million in 2015.
In another landmark development, 40 percent strategic stake in Pakistan Stock Exchange was sold to Chinese Consortium valuing the exchange at $215 million.
