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       KARACHI: Surging foreign exchange reserves and rollover of the Saudi deposit kept fuelling a bull run at the Pakistan Stock Exchange, helping the benchmark KSE 100 index cross yet another barrier of 109,000 on Friday.

       Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the oil and banking sector led the bull run amid speculations ahead of SBP key policy rate announcement next week and the finance minister’s assurance to the IMF’s new country representative that the slippages would be covered before the first biannual review under the Extended Fund Facility due in February.

       The index rallied 1,239.12 points, hitting an intraday record high at 109,478.09 before closing at 109,053.95, posting a gain of 814.98 points or 0.75pc day-on-day.

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       Topline Securities Ltd attributed the rally to the news that Saudi Arabia has agreed to extend the $3 billion deposit held in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for another year, offering essential assistance to Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves.

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       Robust activity was observed at the exchange, led mainly by intuitional buying. Point-wise, the top contribution to the index came from Engro Corpor-ation, United Bank, Mee-zan Bank, Dawood Herc-ules, and Mari Petroleum, cumulatively contributing 956 points.

       Ali Najib, Head of Sales Insight Securities, said the extension in Saudi deposit, continuous buildup in the country’s reserves surpassing $16bn, and consistent strong buying from mutual funds assisted the market in unleashing further high in the weekend session.

       Almost all major sectors, including fertiliser, banks, technology, exploration and production, cement and pharma attracted buying interest.

       The trading volume rose 3.07pc to 1.69 billion shares while the traded value fell 9.08pc to Rs57.48bn day-on-day.

       Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Worl-dCall Telecom (368.90m shares), The Bank of Punjab (115.55 m shares), Cnergyico PK (93.63 m shares), Pak Elektron (60.24 m shares) and Power Cement (58.99 m shares).

       The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize (Rs422.41), Sapphire Fibres (Rs55.98), Khyber Textile (Rs47.82), PNSC (Rs37.21) and Engro Corporation (Rs34.24).

       The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs64.41), Pakistan Tobacco (Rs23-.06), Thal Ltd (Rs16-.31), Millat Tractors (Rs14.22) and Bestway Cement (Rs13.69).

       Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2024