From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: Stocks shot up on Tuesday to cross the 81,000-point mark driven by local and foreign buying amid institutional support, but a late profit-selling spree cut short the stellar rally, traders said.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 483.98 points or 0.6% to touch 81,050.18 points during the intraday trade at 11:40am but eventually settled at 80,672.06 points with a lacklustre gain of 106 points or 0.13%.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp, while speaking to Geo.tv, said that the stocks reached an all-time high as the investors weighed deliberation on the privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) after the assurance given by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to hold Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) bidding process in August.
Mehanti also attributed the gain to the recovery of the rupee against the dollar as well as investors’ hopes for a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal.
“Easy SBP (State Bank of Pakistan) policy rates played a catalyst role in bullish activity at PSX,” he said.
Alpha Beta Core CEO and economic analyst Khurram Schehzad said that the “soon-to-begin IMF talks for the new larger and longer programme have given investors confidence in economic reforms and more stability in the economy.” “As a result, the market stands inexpensive on multiples so investors continue to take exposures,” he added.
A day earlier, stocks recorded an increase of 353.41 points or 0.44% to close at 80,566.21 points.
Earlier, Trading resumed after being suspended for nearly two hours at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as fire broke out at the fourth floor of the main exchange building in Karachi on Monday. The market saw a suspension for about two hours, from 10:25am till 12:30pm, after fire broke out at the main building where several brokerage houses have their offices.
In its second notice on the subject, PSX informed “that the situation is under control and brokerage firms’ staff has started getting back to their premises”. “To ensure smooth reopening of the market for all concerned, the temporary suspension in trading in all securities has been further extended till 12:25 pm today,” it said.
Earlier, the PSX had said trading in all securities has been temporarily suspended from 10:25 am to 11:25 am, due to the fire that broke out in the brokerage firm’s office in the PSX building.
“Due to this incident, many of the firms are unable to access the building,” it added.
However, even at 11:35am, trading activity remained suspended with market talk suggesting another delay of around an hour.
Earlier, at 10:25am, before the suspension of trading, the benchmark KSE-100 was hovering at 80,240.83, an increase of 28.04 points or 0.03%.
