Market Watch: Stock market continues to inch upwards as fuel prices rise

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises 209 points.

KARACHI: The stock market continued to recover for the second day in a row, raising hopes of a sustained push after five days of continuous declines last week.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.95% or 209.25 points to end at 22,189 points.

“Pakistan equities displayed relative strength from the onset as oil paced today’s advance. Although the banking sector mainly MCB Bank (MCB PA +0.5%) and National Bank (NBP PA +1%) were able to register gains, Pakistan Petroleum (PPL PA +5%) was a major gainer today on reported institutional buying. Pakistan Oil Fields (POL PA +1.3%) also followed suit,” said Jawad Aboobakar of Elixir Securities.



“The textile sector remained in limelight all day with Nishat Chunian (NCL PA +5%) hitting upper price circuit and textile giant Nishat Mills (NML PA +1.3%) as investors expect good results from NCL due on coming Friday along with continued growth on back of depreciating rupee. Engro Corp ENGRO PA +4.6% hit upper price circuit during the day on reported local and foreign interest,” Aboobakar said.

“It is very important for the KSE-100 index to break and maintain the 22,300 – 22,400 levels with high volumes for the rally to continue further. Index heavy weights specially the Exploration and Production sector were significant stimulators in pushing the index north,” said Fahad M Ali of JS Global Securities.

“In some conservative groups the confidence level is still low amid massacre of 2,600 points in KSE-100 index where index making a low of 21,497 points in the last few trading sessions. Investors and day jobbers preferred to remain on the sidelines and let the market set a direction keeping the volumes moderate for today,” Ali added.

Trade volumes fell to 133 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 197 million shares.

Shares of 327 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day 175 stocks closed higher, 129 declined while 23 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.5 billion.



PTCL was the volume leader with 7.8 million shares losing Rs0.23 to finish at Rs26.58. It was followed by Telecard Limited with 7.3 million shares losing Rs0.3 to close at Rs6.1 and Bank of Punjab with 7.1 million shares losing Rs0.17 to close at Rs11.32.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs340 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2013.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.