KARACHI: On Monday, optimistic sentiments dominated the stock market for the fourth straight day, momentarily lifting the KSE 100-share index past the 66,000-point barrier.
Following Shehbaz Sharif’s seamless election as Pakistan’s 24th prime minister, political stability began to emerge, which supported the market’s overnight upward momentum.
The market continued to rise on the general political optimism, according to Topline Securities Ltd. The index had intraday highs of 681.75 points, rising to 66,007.44, and lows of 206.90 points, falling to 65,325.68 points.
In addition, the Federal Board of Revenue has received a proposal from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to double taxes for both salaried and non-salaried individuals. It also suggests increasing the general sales tax rate to 18 percent on a number of necessities, including POL goods, stationery, medications, and unprocessed food.
The steady rupee and the 30% decrease in the trade deficit in 8MFY24 also increased investor confidence, according to Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation. The declining trend in the Karachi Interbank Offered Rate (Kibor) following a sharp decline in headline inflation to 23.1pc in February from 28.34pc in the previous month could be an indication of a likely cut in the SBP’s policy rate in its upcoming monetary policy review.
Thus, the KSE-100 index ended the day at 65,951.73 points, up 626.04 points, or 0.96 percent, from the previous trading session.
472.82 million shares were traded, a 37.36 percent increase in total trading volume. Day-over-day, the transacted value increased by 21.50 per cent to Rs16.64 billion.
Mari Petroleum Ltd (Rs68.45), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs55.62), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs40.62), Pakistan Hotels Developers Ltd (Rs37.79), and Bata Pakistan (Rs30.00) were the shares showing the largest rises in their share prices in absolute terms.
Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs213.28), Philip Morris (Pakistan) Ltd (Rs40.43), JDW Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs24.95), Khyber Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs23.36), and Shield Corporation Ltd (Rs18.02) were the companies with the largest absolute declines in share prices.
Foreign investors continued to be net purchasers, having bought $2.42 million worth of shares.
