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KARACHI: Stocks closed on a bullish note on Friday on a sharp recovery in the value of the rupee against the dollar.
Arif Habib Corporation Ltd analyst Ahsan Mehanti said a crackdown on foreign exchange companies aimed at preventing smuggling also played a positive role in pushing up the share prices.
In addition, speculations ahead of the visit of the Saudi crown prince amid talks of $25 billion commitments under the Special Investment Facilitation Council from the Gulf countries acted as a catalyst for the bullish activity.
The sales desk of Arif Habib Ltd said the unlocking of the 46,000-point level led to the first week-on-week gain following four consecutive weeks of negative performance.
“Prospects look encouraging for the next week where the (meeting of the) State Bank of Pakistan’s Monetary Policy Committee will be the main event, with market expectations ranging from an increase of 100 basis points to 200 basis points,” it added.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 46,013.49 points, up 256.25 points or 0.56 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume decreased by 15.5pc to 149.5 million shares. The traded value decreased 26.7pc to Rs5.5bn on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included TPL Properties Ltd (11.9m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (11m shares), Bank Alfalah Ltd (9.2m shares), Pakistan International Airlines Ltd (7.5m shares) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (7m shares).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs100), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs43.13), Baluchistan Wheels Ltd (Rs11.32), Towellers Ltd (Rs8.01) and Pakistan Hotels Developers Ltd (Rs7.24).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs150), Indus Motor Company Ltd (Rs12.30), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs6.37), National Foods Ltd (Rs5.94) and Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (Rs5.52).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $1.36m.