Market watch: Stocks bounce back with a vengeance

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises 355.31 points.


Our Correspondent December 05, 2013
“The market re-embarked on a journey towards 25,000 points led by the oil and gas sector as global fuel prices jumped and foreign portfolio investor interest remained high in the sector,” says Ovais Ahsan of JS Global Securities. PHOTO: INP

KARACHI: The day started on a cautious note with most activity happening in the second and third tier stocks, pushing the market to a record high of 24,800 points.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 1.45% translating into 355.31 points to end at 24,800.69.

“The market re-embarked on a journey towards 25,000 points led by the oil and gas sector as global fuel prices jumped and foreign portfolio investor interest remained high in the sector,” said Ovais Ahsan of JS Global Securities.

“Oil and Gas Development Companies (+3.1%) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (+1.2%) were major index movers. Fauji Fertilizer (+1.7%) moved upwards on healthy urea sales for November 2013 and an anticipation of a strong pay-out for the year end.



“The buying frenzy in the consumer-fast moving goods segment continued as Nestle (+4.7%), National Foods (+5.0%) and Shezan (+5.0%) outperformed. The cement sector also remained a favourite amongst investors with Lucky Cement (+2.2%) and Fauji Cement (+4.5%) gaining as people remained confident that the cartel would remain intact and prices would continue to inch up,” said Ahsan.

According to Muhmammad Raza Rajwani of Elixir Securities, equities brushed off all concerns against the expectation of a correction with the index closing at a record high of 24,800, with 1.5% recovery in rupee against greenbacks in open market boosting confidence.

“Cements that lagged index in the recent run, were in the limelight with mid caps Kohat Cement (KOHC PA +4.6%), Cherat Cement (CHCC PA +5%) and Pioneer Cement (PIOC PA +5%) closing at or near upper circuit levels on reports of a likely 5% hike in cement prices in the coming weeks,”Rajwani added.

Trade volumes fell to 188 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 200 million.



Shares of 365 companies were traded on Thursday. At the end of the day, 232 stocks closed higher, 110 declined while 23 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.5 billion.

Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 32.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.60 to finish at Rs14.02. Maple leaf cement followed with 9.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.45 to close at Rs26.33 and Dewan Cement with 7.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.53 to close at Rs6.03.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs1.1 billion, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2013.

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