Stocks beat losing streak betting on banks, cements

Stocks broke out of a near weeklong losing streak to edge higher in ranged trade, supported by cements and banks on bets of consensus-beating earnings announcements down the line, dealers said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) KSE-100 shares index gained 0.18 percent or 84.91 points to close at 46,227.65 points. Volumes improved to 694.8 million shares from 577.95 million on Thursday.

KSE-30 shares index gained 0.07 percent or 14.33 points to close at 19,230.64 points. As many as 415 scrips were active of which 205 advanced, 200 declined, and 10 remained unchanged.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed higher led by cement and banking scrips on strong financial results.

"Midsession pressure remained in oil scrips amid slump in global crude oil prices and weak global equities. However, 19 percent surge in home remittance to

$2.3 billion, $500 million records receipts in Roshan Digital Accounts, 16.28 percent surge in cement sales, 46 percent surge in auto sales and higher exports buoyed stocks," Mehanti added.

An analyst at brokerage Arif Habib Limited said market opened on a positive note; however, saw continuation of selling pressure as witnessed in the past two sessions.

"The index gained 236 points during the session and managed to stay afloat by closing positive. Selling pressure was observed in banks, cement and steel sector, whereas technology sector maintained an uptrend, with TRG Pakistan hitting upper circuit upon announcement of its board meeting, the analyst added.

The result season continues in full swing with Millat Tractors posting better-thanexpected earnings per share (EPS) of Rs30.2 along with a cash dividend of Rs50/share and a 12.5 percent bonus issue, after which the stock closed 7.5 percent up.

DG Khan Cement announced 98 percent surge in 2QFY21 EPS, which was above industry expectation, while Fauji Cement posted 371 percent surge in its 2QFY21 EPS.

Bank of Punjab announced annual EPS of 2.6, down 17 percent, and lower than industry consensus; however a higher-thanexpected dividend of

the

Rs1.0/share boosted investor sentiment and the stock closed the day up 4.91 percent. E&P stocks remained under pressure wherein Pakistan Oilfields declined 0.9 percent, Mari Petroleum 0.4 percent, and Pakistan State Oil (PSO) lost 0.63 percent.

Among auto assemblers, Atlas Honda was down 5.5 percent and Indus Motor Company closed 1.01 percent in negative.

Technology sector added 112 points, autos 38 points, refinery 11 points, while cement eroded 32 points, pharmaceuticals 15 points, and power generation lost 15 points.

Millat Tractors up Rs90.56 to close at Rs1,298.14/share, and Nestle Pakistan up Rs78.45 to close at Rs6,200/share ended up as the highest gainers of the day, while Rafhan Maize, down Rs385 to close at Rs10,100/share, and Bata Pakistan down Rs38.58 to end at Rs1,799.42/share were the top losers of the day.

Byco Petroleum led topped the volume chart with 89.84 million shares. The refiner gained 90 paisas to close at Rs10.3/share. Worldcall Telecom was second, posting a turnover of 62.27 million. It gained 09 paisas to

Rs1.59/share.

Hum Network was third, recording a trade of 60.25 million shares. The media stock gained 60 paisas to finish at Rs7.61.

The KSE-100 index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a slight bearish trend, losing 27.84 points, with negative change of 0.06 percent, closing at 46,905.79 points against 46,933.63 points on the last working day.

A total 440,278,054 shares were traded during the day compared to the trade of 616,309,447 shares the previous day whereas the price of shares stood at Rs26.421 billion against Rs29.503 billion previous day.

As many as 430 companies' transacted shares in the stock market, 161 of them recorded gain and 248 sustained losses whereas the share price of 21 companies remained unchanged.

The three top traded companies were Pak Refinery with a volume of 34,493,500 shares and price per share of Rs27.92, TRG Pak Ltd with a volume of 30,377,500 and price per share of Rs119.41 and KElectric Ltd with a volume of 19,245,500 and price per share of Rs4.67.

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