Stocks stay bullish amid IMF deal optimism
Stocks rose on Tuesday, thanks to the investors’ optimism about the potential finalisation of a policy-level agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Progress on the resolution of the gas sector’s circular debt brought the exploration and production stocks into the spotlight, said Arif Habib Ltd. The government is considering settling the outstanding debt in the gas sector by means of a cash injection to the twin Sui companies. The amount of settled circular debt is expected to come back to the government via dividends. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,723.32 points, up 200.56 points or 0.48 per cent from the preceding session. The overall trading volume increased 0.4pc to 297.8 million shares. The traded value went down 2.5pc to $44.2m on a day-on-day basis. Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (64.4m shares), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (22.2m shares), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (15.8m shares), Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd (13.1m shares) and K-Electric Ltd (11.8m shares).