Market watch: Bourse ignores security concerns, hits record high again

Index closes at 17,266 points, highest in history.

KARACHI:

The local bourse managed to hit another record high despite law and order concerns after attacks in Karachi and in the northwest part of the country. Activity remained dull on the back of political uncertainty and announcement of the monetary policy on February 8. Small and mid-tier stocks particularly the cement sector remained in the limelight.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index climbed 0.14% or 23.49 points to end at 17,266.23 point level. Trade volumes fell to 142 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 273 million shares.

“Inflation figures for January was not a surprise and did little to change the market mood as investors are betting on no change in rates in the upcoming monetary policy,” reported Harris Batla, analyst at Elixir Securities.

Shares of 355 companies were traded on Friday. At the end of the day 141 stocks closed higher, 168 declined while 46 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.92 billion.

Cement sector remained in the spotlight for the whole week as strong sales in December 2012 is expected to augment local cement producers’ top-line. Total cement despatches for December 2012 grew 5.9% to 2.82 million tons, according to the data available on All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association’s website.

Maple Leaf Cement was the highlight of the day recovering sharply on strong earnings after a steep fall on Thursday while Fauji Cement continued to create excitement on upcoming earnings announcements. Maple Leaf Cement posted a profit of Rs1.35 billion for the first of the fiscal 2013, according to a copy of the results sent to the Karachi Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Whereas, Byco Petroleum touched intraday high as its projects kept investors interested.

Maple Leaf Cement was the volume leader with 22.7 million shares gaining Rs0.85 to finish at Rs17.9. It was followed by Fauji Cement with 10.3 million shares losing Rs0.02 to close at Rs7.99 and Byco Petroleum with 8.2 million shares climbing Rs0.19 to close at Rs14.13.

Engro Corporation slipped further on reported foreign selling while the index-heavyweight oil sector and the financial sector traded sideways, added Batla. Foreign institutional investors sold five million Engro shares at Rs92 per share off market as well.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs393.3 million ($4 million), according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2013.

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