KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) managed to break the bearish spell that dominated the start of the week and closed the week on bullish notes. The market extended the recovery drive for two days to breach and
closed at 45,000 points on Friday.
Karachi Share Index (KSE-100) ended the day 445.12 points (0.99 per cent) up at 45,186.48 points against the previous closing of 44,741.36 points. The market went as high as 45,249.98 points during intra-day trading, while recording as low as 44,741.36 points.
Trading volume increased to 688.03 million shares today as compared to 383 million traded in the previous session, according to PSX website data. The daily traded value inclined to Rs 25.34 billion from Rs 17.97 billion in the previous session, the data said.
Today’s rally was an extension of the recovery drive started in the last session. Some good news from the macroeconomic front, such as enhanced availability of funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Pakistan and investment news by Pakistan’s leading consortium of companies supported the drive further, analysts and traders said.
Pakistan may receive an amount of $2.5 to $3 billion from the IMF under the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) in the
first quarter of 2021-22. The increase in the SDRs will be good for growing economies, such as Pakistan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Nigeria.
Due to some worrying news regarding the rise in COVID infections, the market went under some intra-day corrections. However, the buying in dips was observed near the end of the trading day as the investors with strong holding capacity seemed busy in acquiring stocks at discounted prices, analysts added.
Engro Corp. in a statement to the PSX today said that the corporation will spend $31.4 million to conduct engineering, design, and technical studies for its proposed polypropylene (PP) facility. These will be based on propane dehydrogenation (PDH), while a front-end engineering design (FEED) study will also be carried out on the PDH-PP project.
The share price of Sapphire Textile increased by Rs60.07 to Rs861.07, while Nestle Pakistan gained Rs49 to Rs5,849. On the other hand, Indus Motor Company lost Rs12.47 today to close at Rs 1,109.71, while Imrooz Modaraba lost Rs 11.02 to close at Rs 139.76.
