KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market turned positive on Wednesday on the news of $3 billion support from Saudi Arabia, which in turned, supported the local currency against the greenback, dealers said.
An analyst at Topline Securities said the KSE-100 Index rallied attributable to improvement in sentiments, owing to reports, suggesting that Saudi Arabia would deposit $3 billion cash in the State Bank of Pakistan and also provide $1.2 billion worth of oil on deferred payments, which will further pave the way for the resumption of the IMF programme.
“Volumes remained thin, as the new trading system kept activity restricted and trading was also suspended at noon for two-and-a-half hours to resolve technical issues.”
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index gained 1.25 per cent, or 564.12 points to close at 45,791.92 points. The KSE-30 shares index gained 1.33 per cent, or 234.82 points, to close at 17,911.47 points.
As many as 333 scrips were active, of which 245 advanced, 76 declined and 12 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 180.4 million shares, compared with the turnover of 162.79 million shares in the last trading session.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks showed sharp recovery on reports of Saudi government approving $3 billion financing and $1.2 billion deferred oil payment facility for the budgetary support and the Pakistan-IMF agreement over the use of $2.78 billion Covid support fund ahead of the resumption of extended financing facility.
“Strong financial results, major recovery in [the] rupee parity and higher global crude oil prices played a catalytic role in [the] bullish close.”
The companies that reflected the highest gains included Allawasaya Textile, up Rs122 to close at Rs2,019/share; and Phillip Morris, up Rs62.45 to close at Rs895.45/share.
The companies, which reflected the most losses included Sapphire Textile, down Rs92.9 to close at Rs1,156/share; and Sapphire Fiber, down Rs50.5 to close at Rs634/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 11.83 million shares. The scrip gained nine paisas to close at Rs2.38/share; followed by Unity Foods with a turnover of 11.01 million shares. It gained 33 paisas to close at Rs29.76/share. Hum Network remained the third with a turnover of 10.17 million shares. It shed one paisa to finish at Rs6.76.
