Market watch: Christmas holiday marks lull at Karachi bourse

Index closes with minor gains as investors stay away.

KARACHI: The stock market remained range-bound ahead of the Christmas day holiday, closing marginally up as investor participation in the market shrivelled ahead of the year’s end.

“Trade remained [confined] mainly in second- and third-tier stocks.” said Arif Habib Corp analyst Ahsan Mehanti.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained 0.16% or 26.60 points to end at the 16,891.94 points level. Trade volumes plummeted to 132 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 182 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs2.79 billion.

“The market saw a modest pre-Christmas rally today, driven by index heavyweight Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) (up 1.0%), as investors choose to build positions in companies protected from devaluations in currency,” reported JS Global analyst Ovais Ahsan. “Dividend plays like Hub Power Company rallied, as participants sought safety ahead of the year-end closing.”

“Earlier news of hydrocarbon discovery kept OGDC in the green, while Pakistan Oilfields also closed positive on payout related buying,” added Harris Ahmed Batla, analyst at Elixir Securities.

TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 33.41 million shares gaining Rs0.41 to finish at Rs6.18. It was followed by Byco Petroleum with 9.14 million shares gaining Rs0.26 to close at Rs12.35 and Lotte Pakistan PTA with 8.78 million shares gaining Rs0.12 to close at Rs7.61.

“Business process outsourcers TRG led the volumes ... as investors remained excited about its decision to list its subsidiary at the Alternative Investment Market at the London Stock Exchange,” added Ahsan.

Another star performer during the day was Engro Foods, which analysts say gained on the back of institutional interest after speculation of rapid sales growth and high expectations from new products expected to be launched in the coming year. However, Batla said the interest was due to the selling of a stake in the company to a local player at a price higher than Rs90 per share.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs22.00 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2012.