Market watch: Stocks continue recovery amid political calm

Index regains another 60 points amid low volumes.


Our Correspondent January 04, 2013
Shares of 349 companies were traded on Friday. At the end of the day, 183 stocks closed higher, 131 declined while 35 remained unchanged.

KARACHI: The stock market continued its recovery towards pre-new year levels, as earnings-related excitement encouraged investors to buy oversold stocks and take the market upwards.

“With volumes at a two-week low, the equity market gained another 60 points amid calmness on the political front,” said equity dealer Samar Iqbal, who works at Topline Securities.

“Recovery at the Karachi Stock Exchange continued as punters squared their short positions from the recent fall ahead of the weekend,” echoed Harris Ahmed Batla, analyst at Elixir Securities. “Trading activity remained thin […] on low foreign and local institutional interest, while second- and third-tier stocks continued to dominate the volumes chart.”

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained 0.36% or 60.30 points to end at the 16,648.84 points level. Trade volumes dropped to 99 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 102 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs2.48 billion.

Shares of 349 companies were traded on Friday. At the end of the day, 183 stocks closed higher, 131 declined while 35 remained unchanged.

Byco Petroleum was the volume leader with 12.70 million shares gaining Rs0.41 to finish at Rs13.79. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 11.88 million shares losing Rs0.42 to close at Rs15.34 and Maple Leaf Cement with 6.95 million shares gaining Rs0.12 to close at Rs14.48.

“Cements traded lacklustre, while oils and banks traded positive to help the KSE-100 index close green,” reported Batla.

“Renewed buying interest was also seen in United Bank, as 3.3 million shares exchanged hands,” added Iqbal.

Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rs246.77 million and sellers of Rs309.71 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2013.

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