PSX rallies amid record turnover of 1.56bln shares

Stocks on Wednesday ended higher on renewed economic hopes, hitting the highest ever turnover of 1.56 billion shares, led by Worldcall Telecom Ltd (WTL) that claimed the lion’s share of trade with 708 million shares, dealers said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) KSE-100 Shares Index gained 1.11 percent or 511.65 points to close at 46,812.31 points.

Analyst Muhammad Abdul Rafay at Pearl Securities said the benchmark index witnessed a gigantic session registering highest volumes in the history of PSX, where most of the 3rd tier stocks closed at upper circuit breakers including WTL, Hum Network and Pakistan International Airline (PIA).

“Optimism was triggered by the government's projection of even better economic numbers for 4QFY21. Also, investors took cue from the improving fundamentals of business and industrial activities, which further supported the sentiment.”

“Going forward, we expect the market to remain upbeat in line with the upcoming business-friendly budget, therefore, we recommend investors to adopt “buy on dips” strategy in the coming days” Rafay added.

Tracking the benchmark index, the KSE-30 Shares Index also gained 1.21 percent or 228.66 points to close at 19,126.85 points.

Topline Securities in its daily market review said stocks opened on a positive note drawing strength from the government’s agreement to exemption of inter-corporate dividends.

Further sentimental boost came from planning minister Asad Umar’s Tuesday’s statement that economic numbers of the fourth quarter of the fiscal year would be greater than the last quarter, the brokerage added.

It said TRG contributed the most by 71 points, while E&Ps (exploration and production stocks) and financial sector were the major gainers.

As many as 423 scrips were active on Wednesday of which 284 advanced, 125 declined, and 14 remained unchanged.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed bullish amid record trades on reports of $773 million current account surplus for July-April 2021 and large-scale manufacturing growth of over 20 percent in April 2021.

BVI High Court release of PIA assets in Reko Diq case, Moody’s upbeat review of economic growth potential and surging global crude oil prices led the sentiment.

Saeed Khalid, head of research at Shajar Capital, said stock market remained bullish throughout the day, marking the highest ever intra-day volume mainly on the bullish activity in Worldcall Telecom Ltd where the scrip alone contributed 50 percent of the trading volume of the index.

Further, banks performed remarkably during the day mainly pre-MPS buying activity in the sector, Khalid said adding the banking sector contributed 159 points to the index.

JS Group in a note said the market managed to close above 46,800 with such high volume and “we believe this bullish momentum can continue in the coming days”.

Hence, any dips should be viewed as buying opportunities in the banking, cement, steel and technology sector stocks, the report said.

Unilever Foods, up Rs927.04 to close at Rs16,599/share, and Wyeth Pakistan up Rs138.26 to close at Rs1,981.84/share emerged as the best gainers of the session.

Rafhan Maize, down Rs150 to close at Rs9,350/share and Mehmood Textile, down Rs20 to end at Rs400/share, were the worst losers of the day.

Worldcall Telecom led the volumes chart with a turnover of 707.7 million shares, followed by Hum Network with 112.49 million shares, and Unity Foods recording 45.12 million shares.