Stocks stage late rally on bargain hunting

Stocks staged a furious rally in the waning moments of a shortened session on Friday as early losses triggered a bout of bargain hunting from the instructional investors, dealers said.

The market opened under pressure as the index declined to an intraday low of 460 points on weaknesses in global oil prices.

“Pressure in market was largely due to decline in oil prices, which fell following a meeting between OPEC and its allies where they agreed to cut production by 10 percent and investors felt the cut is not enough to counter loss in demand from COVID-19 pandemic, resultantly E&P sector closed 2.5 percent lower,” brokerage Topline Securities said in a post market note. “However, aggressive buying was witnessed during the latter hours of trade, where investors came in to accumulate before the weekend.”

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index gained 0.62 percent or 195.91 points to close at 32,033.21 points level. KSE-30 shares index followed suit with a high of 0.42 percent or 59.00 points to end at 14,205.20 points level.

Of 328 active scrips, 192 up, 118 retreated, and 18 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 127.065 million shares, as compared with the turnover of 216.513 million shares in the previous session.

Limited participation was observed by investors due to limited hours of the trade and lower foreign participation, as major exchanges around the world were closed on account of Good Friday.

Salman Ahmed, head of institutional sales at Aba Ali Habib said the government’s expected decision to allow opening of construction from April 14 and modalities discussed by the Sindh government to ease lock down conditions rekindle hope of some economic activity.

“Uncertainty over corona virus still put brakes on any heavy buying but developments related to the issue would direct the whole market next week,” Ahmed said.

Moreover, cut in treasury bills yields and inflation rate bodes well for the country’s economy, he added. Ovais Ahsan, chief executive officer at Optimus Capital Management said index dropped nearly 1.5 percent at the open with oil and gas exploration companies leading the decline on the back of global prices falling 9 percent overnight”.

“The bulls fought back handsomely to help the index bounce back into the green and close above the 32,000 level with Bank Alfalah, Engro and MCB contributing most to the gains,” Ahsan said.

“Moreover underlying sentiment remained bullish on expectation of a revival in economic activity as Prime Minister Imran Khan sought advice from provinces on how to ease lockdown restriction.”

The top gainers were Rafhan Maize, up Rs160.81 close at Rs6,550.00/share, and Phillip Morris Pakistan Rs61.05 to finish at Rs1,960.00/share. Bhanero Textile down Rs49.00 to close at Rs641.00/share, and Pakistan Tobacco Rs42.45 to close at Rs1,536.80/share, were the main losers.

Hascol Petrol recorded the highest volumes with a turnover of 11.938 million shares. Whereas the scrip lost Rs0.35 end at Rs15.15/share. The lowest volumes were witnessed in Unity Foods Limited recording a turnover of 4.293 million shares, whereas the scrip lost Rs0.11 to end at Rs10.55/share.