Market watch: Telecom continues to fuel upward trend

Benchmark KSE-100 index climbs 143 points.

KARACHI: Investors remained bullish towards the telecom sector on back of the official approval on formation of the international telecom gateway; however overall sentiments stayed wary due to political uncertainty with Supreme Court’s hearing just around the corner.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index climbed 0.93% or 143.09 points to end at 15,449.6 point level.

The telecom sector rallied bullish sentiment after the Ministry of Information Technology issued formal policy directives to long distance international (LDI) operators to establish the controversial international clearing house (ICH). The mechanism will come into place with effect from October 1, 2012, according to a Shajar Capital report.

The proposed ICH gateway will converge all international calls to a single technical gateway led by Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) against the current practice of being handled by 14 LDI operators.

However, weekend blues along with the prime minister’s National Reconciliation Ordinance hearing on September 17 kept investors on the sidelines, according to Topline Securities Equity Dealer Samar Iqbal.

The index heavyweight oil and gas sector supported the climb as the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) witnessed buying since the announcement of the approval of term finance certificates by the government to control the spiralling energy sector’s circular debt. OGDC alone contributed 90 points gaining 2.7% as expectations of flow from the new fields kept the script positive, according to Shakir Padela, analyst at JS Global Capital.

Trade volumes fell to 133 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 149 million shares. The market has been witnessing strained volumes since past week.

Shares of 327 companies were traded on the last trading session of the week. At the end of the day 143 stocks closed higher, 147 declined while 37 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.2 billion.

Telecard was the volume leader with 17.7 million shares gaining Rs0.13 to finish at Rs3.33. It was followed by PTCL with 9.5 million shares gaining 0.36 to close at Rs19.19 and WorldCall Telecom with 6 million shares climbing Rs0.07 to close at Rs3.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers
of Rs4.3million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2012.