KSE-100 recovers from Friday’s bloodbath

• KSE-100 index closes at 41,878.57 points after surging over 2%.
• Shares of 333 companies were traded during the session.
• Positive developments on economic front give much-needed boost.

KARACHI: After a frantic trading day on Friday, Pakistani stocks recovered ground on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index fluctuating in both directions before finishing up 2.01% to halt the pessimism in the market.

On Friday, a bloodbath was witnessed at the benchmark KSE-100 index, as investor concerns over the imposition of super tax and delay in inflows from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) all came into play.

The market took positive cues from the news that $2.3 billion have been deposited in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) after Islamabad signed an agreement with the Chinese commercial banks. Moreover, hopes that the multibillion-dollar stalled programme with the IMF will be revived soon gave a much-needed boost to the market.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 41,878.57 points after surging 826.78 points or 2.01%.

Arif Habib Limited, in its post-market commentary, noted that the PSX witnessed a positive session today due to clarity on budgetary measures taken by the government imposing the super tax, also dubbed as poverty alleviation tax, on large corporate profitability pertaining to the tax year 2022.

“Moreover, the expectation that IMF will send a draft of the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies to Pakistan today drove optimism amongst investors triggering value buying across the board,” it stated, adding that the KSE-100 index stayed in the green zone throughout the day.

Sectors contributing to the performance included banks (+182.2 points), fertiliser (+96.9 points), cement (+93.3 points), technology (+85 points), and exploration and production (+80.7 points).

Shares of 333 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 228 scrips closed in the green, 90 in the red, and 15 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes plunged to 247.9 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 424.22 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.37 billion.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 32.04 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.23 to close at Rs3.09. It was followed by Treet Corporation with 19.92 million shares traded, gaining Rs1.56 to close at Rs30.12 and Unity Foods with 14.42 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.24 to close at Rs20.49.