LAHORE: Stocks at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) rebounded in the backdrop of 3 per cent Rupee depreciation against dollar here on Tuesday to close at Rs114. To recall, the government had devalued Rupee by around 5 per cent on December 8, 2017. During the last 10 years, Rupee has devalued annually by ~5 per cent. Though Tuesday’s devaluation came with a surprise, it should provide some respite to ailing Balance of Payment (BoP) situation.
Consequently, investors jumped into dollar hedged sectors in expectations of better returns in coming sessions; E&Ps, Textile and IPPs contributed 217 points to the index. Similarly, Banks emerged as a top performer in the market and added 413 points to index in anticipation of a rise in the policy rate.
Despite the fall foreign investors preferred to offload. They closed as net sellers of $4.43 million. Local mutual funds and NBFC came to buy a net of $6.60 million and $4.04 million respectively. Individual investors came forward with the huge selling of net $4.07 million.
The KSE 100 index jumped to 865.26 points during the session to mark a high of 44,404.86 following the news. After enjoying a good trading session the index settled higher by 770.14 points at 44,309.74. The KMI 30 index jumped up 1.33% while the KSE All Share Index clinched 344.04 points. The advancer to decliner ratio stood at 209 to 147.
The cement manufactures further increased cement prices by Rs10 per bag, taking cumulative price increase to Rs40 per bag in last few weeks. Resultantly, most of the scrips in cement sector closed green and contributed 57 points to the index. Market participation recovered 90 per cent in terms of volumes, while, the traded value was up by 110 per cent.
Top five stocks including UBL (+4.7 per cent), HBL (+3 per cent), MCB (+4.5 per cent), PPL (+3.6 per cent) & BAHL (+5 per cent) added 390 points to the index gain, whereas stocks including PMPK (-5 per cent), PSMC (-3.7 per cent), BATA (-5 per cent), HCAR (-1.6 per cent) & EFERT (-0.5 per cent) , withheld 32 points from the index.
Dawood Lawrancepur Limited (DLL) announced financial results for 2017, where the company reported a profit after tax of Rs292 million against Rs3.1 billion last year, down by 91 per cent YoY due to decline in other income by 86 per cent YoY. Moreover, the company also announced Dividend per Share (DPS) of Rs1. The company also notified exchange in its second notice about the renewal of a subordinated loan to its subsidiary Tenaga Generasi Limited (TGL) for the period of three years.
Engro Corporation (ENGRO) notified exchange regarding its declaration of the close period from Mar 21, 2018, to Mar 28, 2018, to consider certain corporate actions in a board meeting to be held on Mar 28, 2018.
Cloud storage company Dropbox Inc’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) was oversubscribed, two people familiar with the matter said, indicating healthy demand for the first big tech IPO this year even as tech stocks opened the week on a sour note.
Meanwhile, Unilever has announced an investment of $120 million (Rs11 billion) in Pakistan acknowledging the country’s high potential for long-term growth.
A report by Topline Securities, the Federal Reserve’s meeting of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is set to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, with the central bank widely expected to raise interest rates upon the meeting’s conclusion.
Asia-Pacific stock markets pared early losses today as investors took a more measured view of the overnight slump in tech shares sparked by concerns about whether Facebook Inc. did enough to stop improper access and handling of user data.
