Market watch : Stock market moves closer to historic high

Benchmark KSE-100 index gains 71 points.

KARACHI: Spurred on by easing fears on political turmoil, investors continued to take up positions in the stock market, pushing the bourse closer to its all-time high close of 15,676.34 points.

“Stocks closed bullish on positive sentiments on the surplus current account balance of $1.2 billion for August 2012, and because the Supreme Court has given the government more time to draft the letter under the National Reconciliation Ordinance implementation case,” observed Ahsan Mehanti, from Arif Habib Cor.

However, JS Global analyst Mujtaba Barakzai said that uncertain domestic politics, religious tensions and weakening relations with the US “kept investors in two minds”.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.46% or 71.46 points to end at the 15,588.66 points level.

“With continued buying interest in oil stocks, the KSE-100 index managed to close near the 15,600 points level,” said Topline Securities equity dealer Samar Iqbal. “Volumes remained constrained to mid-cap stocks,” she added. “The Oil and Gas Development Company added 25 points to the index,” added Iqbal.

Trade volumes climbed to 131 million shares, compared with Tuesday’s tally of 129 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.34 billion. Shares of 359 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day 169 stocks closed higher, 137 declined while 53 remained unchanged.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) was the volume leader with 9.94 million shares gaining Rs0.32 to finish at Rs19.87. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui & Company with 8.63 million shares gaining Rs0.22 to close at Rs14.06 and NIB Bank with 8.60 million shares gaining Rs0.16 to close at Rs2.64.

“The cement sector witnessed another dull session, on news of a decrease in cement prices by Rs5-10 per bag in northern parts of the country,” reported Barakzai. “In the telecom sector, PTCL is still the investor’s favourite, on news of the signing of the International Clearing House agreement.”

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs191.69 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2012.