Stocks cheer LSM, agriculture growth data

Stocks on Friday closed higher ahead of budget announcement mostly cheering agriculture and large-scale manufacturing growth numbers for FY2022, traders said.

The KSE-100 Shares Index gained 278.77 points or 0.67 percent to close at 42,014.73 points, after moving between a day high of 42,076.14 and a low of 41,715.05 points at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed bullish amid thin trade on strong data on agriculture growth at 4.4 percent and LSM growth at 10.4 percent for July-March 2022 and record federal budget outlay of 9.5 trillion for FY23.

Surging global crude oil prices and pre-budget speculation led to the bullish close, he said.

KSE-30 Shares Index also climbed 114.93 points or 0.72 percent to 16,064.58 points.

Traded shares decreased to 115.874 million from 235.353 million shares. The trading value dropped to Rs3.069 billion from Rs5.473 billion.

Turnover in the future contracts slumped to 33.098 million shares from 54.275 million shares.

Market capital, however, expanded to Rs7.021 trillion from Rs6.973 trillion. By the closing bell, 185 names were in the green, 99 in the red, and 31 were unchanged.

Topline Securities said lacklustre activity was observed at the bourse, as the index traded between its intraday high of 340 points and intraday low of -21 points with low volumes.

“Major contribution to the index came from MTL, OGDC, PPL, SYS, and ENGRO, as they cumulatively contributed 124 points. On the flip side BAHL, THALL, NBP, MEBL and SRVI together lost 47 points,” the brokerage said.

The highest increase was recorded in the share prices of Colgate Palmolive. It closed at Rs2,250/share with a gain of Rs50. The next in the list of best gainers was Millat Tractors, which rose Rs25.88 to Rs865.05/share.

Mehmood Textile was hit by worst losses. It fell by Rs69.66 to end at Rs863.34/share. The second worst loser was Pakistan Engineering, which slipped by Rs23.52 to Rs290.23/share.

JS Research said it was another range-bound session as investors waited for the budget announcement amid thin trade.

“Going forward, the market is expected to remain range-bound, hence we recommend investors to stay cautious and avail the current upside as a selling opportunity,” the brokerage report said.

TPL Properties topped volumes chart with 12.015 million shares. The script lost 16 paisas to close at Rs19.38/share. It was followed by G3 Technologies with 10.434 million shares. The IT stock rose by 31 paisas to Rs9.43/share.

Other major turnover-makers included Lotte Chemical, Hum Network, Hascol Petrol, WorldCall Telecom, Ghani Global Holdings, Unity Foods Ltd, Treet Corp, and Cnergyico PK.