Market watch: Bank, fertiliser sectors help in minute recovery

Benchmark KSE 100-share index gains 88.63 points

KARACHI: Stocks showed mild recovery after institutional selling amid rollover week dented the KSE-100 Index’s gains.

Banking and fertiliser scrips recovered on strong valuations and reports confirming a $1 billion World Bank package approval renewed investor interest, helping the index close the day positive.

At close, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark index recorded a rise of 0.23% or 88.63 points to end at 38,237.89.

Elixir Securities analyst Ali Raza said equities managed a positive close as buying in select financials in the last thirty minutes of trading pulled benchmark KSE-100 index out of the red zone.



“Lackluster activity was witnessed in the wider market for most of the day as mixed regional performance owing to Brexit uncertainty and ongoing futures rollover week ensured minimum participation from investors,” said Raza. “Volume of 68 million shares was lowest in last 12 weeks.”

Raza said that after a sideways open, stocks skidded lower on thin volumes leading benchmark index to test support of 38K intra-day. “Benchmark KSE-100 index however recovered on back of late-buying in index heavy MCB Bank (+2.8%) and Habib Bank (HBL, +1.4%).”

JS Global analyst Arhum Ghous said that range bound activity was observed in the market. “Some recovery was witnessed in scrips proposed to be part of MSCI Emerging Market Index as MCB (+2.82%), ENGRO (+1.02%) and UBL (+0.04%) gained to close in the green zone,” said Ghous.



Trade volumes fell to 113 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 124 million.

Shares of 321 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 152 stocks closed higher, 143 declined while 26 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.6 billion.

K-Electric Limited was the volume leader with 12.7 million shares, losing Rs0.01 to finish at Rs7.90. It was followed by Dewan Cement Limited with 9.8 million shares, gaining Rs1.00 to close at Rs14.42 and Engro Fertiliser with 5.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.13 to close at Rs65.25.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs186 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2016.

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