January 22, 2024 (MLN): The Pakistan stock market took a slow start to the week and hovered around the opening level for most of the session.

However, in the last two hours, the index gained momentum amid increased buying interest from investors, pushing it up by 657.19 points or 1.04% to close at 63,939.41.

Last week, KSE-100 lost 1,355 points or 2.1% WoW.

In today's session, the index traded in a range of 951.15 points showing an intraday high of 64,090.88 (+808.65) and a low of 63,139.73 (-142.50) points.

The total volume of the KSE-100 index was 197.283 million shares.

To note, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its first review report commended Pakistan's overall performance against end-September Quantitative Performance Criteria (QPCs), Indicative Targets (ITs), and Structural Benchmarks (SBs) under the Standby Arrangement.

Advancers to decliners remained equally distributed, with 45 companies closing up and 43 closing down.

Meanwhile 5 were unchanged and 7 remained untraded.

The KSE-100 index was significantly supported by Oil & Gas Exploration Companies, adding 406.39 points. This follows media reports indicating a substantial sum expected to be received within this sector as part of the circular debt resolution plan.

"According to reports, OGDC and PPL are expected to receive Rs600 billion and RS150bn as part of the circular debt resolution plan," Ismail Iqbal Securities, a brokerage house, said in its daily roundup report.

Other sectors that contributed positively were Commercial Banks with 112.84, Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 80.15, Power Generation & Distribution with 73.83, and fertilizers with 29.82 points.

On the contrary, the index was let down by Cement with 13.27, Technology & Communication with 11.79, Automobile Assembler with 11.41, Chemical with 10.13, and Cable & Electrical Goods with 7.28 points.

The index-heavy companies, OGDC and PPL, with a combined weightage of around 8.25% of the total KSE-100, surged more than 7% and added 182.6 and 177.11 points, respectively.

This was followed by BAHL with 89.95, HUBC with 52.59, and MARI with 43.17 points.

Meanwhile, companies that dragged the index lower were UBL with 11, MTL with 8.99, FCCL with 8.08, CHCC with 7.43 and PAEL with 7.28 points.

In the broader market, the All-Share index closed at 43,217.90 with a net gain of 358.48 points.

Total market volume was 298.7 million shares compared to 287.3 from the previous session while traded value was recorded at Rs12.52 billion showing an increase of Rs3.2bn.

There were 135,993 trades reported in 335 companies with 140 closing up, 171 closing down and 24 remaining unchanged.

KSE-100 has gained 22,487 points or 54.25% during the fiscal year, whereas the ongoing calendar year has witnessed a cumulative increase of 1,488 points, equivalent to 2.38%.

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Posted on: 2024-01-22T16:21:05+05:00