Market watch: Index continues ride in new territory

Benchmark KSE 100-share Index rises 129.49 points


Our Correspondent October 05, 2016
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs93.6 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited. PHOTO: ONLINE

KARACHI: Profit-booking erased some of the gains Wednesday, but the benchmark index continued to finish positive in a bullish run that has helped the KSE-100 conquer new territory.

At close, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a rise of 0.31% or 129.49 points to end at its highest ever close of 41,253.46.



Elixir Securities, in its report, stated the day was off to a positive start as the KSE-100 Index was pushed up by gains in select index heavy names notably Lucky Cement (LUCK PA +0.2%), Pakistan State Oil (PSO PA -0.2%) and Pakistan Oilfields (POL PA +0.45%).

“Sideboard plays also fetched upbeat activity from retail investors and traded higher with retail favourite Bank of Punjab (BOP +6.03%) maintaining its winning streak,” said analyst Ali Raza.

“The wider market, however, witnessed profit-taking mid-day and erased more than half the morning gains with Pakistan Petroleum (PPL PA -2.7%) contributing most to day’s losses, followed by index heavy Habib Bank (HBL PA -0.6%) and United Bank Limited (UBL PA -1.4%),” said Raza.

“MCB (MCB PA +0.9%), however, stood strong and landed among the top three stocks on leaders boards on institutional buying,” he added.

Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan said the index continued its positive trajectory into previously unknown levels.

“Despite global crude oil prices climbing to a three month high, after weekly industry data indicated that US crude stockpiles plunged last week easing the global glut, profit taking was witnessed in the oil sector.

“Top index movers of the aforementioned sector today were PPL (-2.73%) and OGDC (-0.08%),” he remarked.

“Similarly, profit taking was witnessed in the cement sector as global coal prices hit 30-month high, where MLCF (-0.59%) and FCCL (-1.74%) were the biggest laggard of the sector today.

“On the other hand, a rally was witnessed in tractor manufacturer stocks on the back of reduced GST on tractors along with steps taken by government to improve the agronomics of the country and anticipation of better than previous sales numbers for the month of Sept-16,” said Khan.



“Resultantly, MTL and AGTL both closed at their respective limit-up price.

“Rising trend of inflation and improving global crude oil prices kept investor interest in the banking sector.

“Furthermore, speculations of interest rate hike in upcoming monetary policy gained momentum as MCB (+0.85%) and NBP (+1.06%) were the biggest index movers.

“Overall, the market sentiments remain positive and we expect further upside from these levels,” he added.

Trade volumes rose to 657.8 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 559 million.

Shares of 453 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 282 stocks closed higher, 153 declined while 18 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs17.9 billion.

Lotte Chemicals was the volume leader with 42.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.99 to finish at Rs9.04. It was followed by Bank of Punjab with 41.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.91 to close at Rs16.01 and Pakistan International Airlines (P.I.A.C) with 39.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.24 to close at Rs9.79.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs93.6 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6th, 2016.

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