As the results season was wrapping up, analysts worked furiously on their calculators. To determine the corporate profitability for the quarter ended on Dec 31, 2020.
Therefore, the results were surprisingly pleasant. The gross profit secured by the listed companies in the quarter amounted to Rs 213.9 billion. Registering an impressive growth of 38 per cent year-on-year. Following the sector-wise reviews the segment with the heaviest weight in the KSE-100 index, commercial banks. Which contributed the highest sum of Rs48bn earned in the quarter. The figure, however, fell by 8pc over the profits recorded in the same quarter in 2019.
The second-highest profit after tax of Rs41bn for the quarter generated by the exportation and production of oil and gas. Which was 15pc lower than the earnings of Rs48.1bn in the same quarter in 2019.
The sector that delineated a gleaming rise in profit was technology and communication. The sector gathered earnings of Rs5.9bn, skyrocketing by 27.6 times from Rs207m year-on-year. Software companies, Avanceon Ltd, Systems Ltd, TRG Pakistan and Netsol Technologies saw their share prices take off during the year, providing their stockholders staggering capital gains.
Raza Jafri, Head of equities at Intermarket Securities stated his concerns as he said “The strong corporate profitability provides strong support to the market and should be a key driver for the KSE-100 index once political noise dies down.”
