Karachi, June 24, 2021 (PPI-OT): View from the desk

Bulls made a comeback as the market made an intraday high of +217 points, however profit taking was witnessed towards the end as the market closed up 61 points only at 47,962 level. Traded volumes stood at 639mn shares where WTL (-5.4%), PACE (17.1%), SILK (-6.8%), TPL (2.8%) and GGGL (-4.8%) cumulatively contributed 34% to the total volumes. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin directed the Privatization Commission and the Ministry of Petroleum to further examine the issue of divestment of government share in the Mari Petroleum Limited and come up with a comprehensive proposal during the next Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) meeting. MARI (-0.1%) closed in red zone in today’s trading session.

A rally in cement stocks was witness, where DCL (3.7%), CHCC (1.8%), KOHC (1.0%), LUCK (0.4%) and FLYNG (1.5%) closed in the green zone. From the steel sector CSAP (5.0%), AGHA (0.1%), ITTEFAQ (0.4%), ASTL (0.5%) and INIL (0.3%) gained to close higher on back of the rumours that the long steel manufacturers raised the prices of rebar by Rs5k/mt. Moving forward, we expect volatility in the market due to roll-over week and recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy in construction and export oriented sectors.