Market watch: Another day, another high for KSE

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises 123.12 points.

KARACHI: The index started on a positive tone, carrying last week’s momentum and hit 26,299 points during intraday trading. Pakistan equities added another 123.12 points to close at yet another high.

At the end of the day, the Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.47% or 123.12 points to end at 26,169.83.

“Morning news about privatisation and the process rolling forward after the privatisation commission meeting on Jan 8, 2014 aided to the bull momentum,” said Muhammad Sibtain Mustafa, an analyst at Elixir Securities, while commenting on the market drive towards the high.

Engro Foods (+3.5%) continued its recent run with talks of quarter’s earnings significantly up on account of higher sales.



“Most of the gains were added from second and third-tier stocks with consumer stocks National Foods (+5%), Service Industries (+5%) and Tri-Pack Films (+5%) rallying to highs. Overall, it was a volatile day with day jobbers playing along.”

Meanwhile, Ovais Ahsan of JS Global Capital said the market closed on a bullish note bucking the regional trend as consumer giant, Nestle (+5%), let the points table.

“International Monetary Fund’s nod of approval over quarterly performance of the government and rising growth rate projection to 3.7% also was a sentiment driver today,” he said.

“Consumer stocks continued to dominate proceeding as Engro Foods (+3.4%) rallied on investors expectations that the company will overcome their prolonged problems with their distributors this quarter. The contrarians continued to like the banking sector despite inflation dodging double figures as Soneri Bank (+8.7%) and National Bank of Pakistan (+1.5%) were prominent gainers in the sector.”

Trade volumes rose to 282 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 277 million.

Shares of 410 companies were traded on Monday. At the end of the day, 228 stocks closed higher, 171 declined while 11 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.7 billion.



Pakistan International Airlines was the volume leader with 38 million shares, gaining Rs0.73 to finish at Rs9.19. It was followed by Pakgen Power with 24.3 million shares, losing Rs0.21 to close at Rs22.86 and Faysal Bank with 11.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.79 to close at Rs12.59.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs313 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2014.

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